Thank you to those of you who have graciously commented about this series in the various permaulture forums that I inhabit. Your feedback and kindness are greatly appreciated! As a result of some of this feedback, I'm going to break this down into smaller bites and also add a third example - that of building a hugel bed.
So what are process groups? And why can't we get into the meat & potatoes of managing a project, yet?
Meat & potatoes - almost there; however, jumping in and beginning to work prior to planning is the number one reason projects fail. So before we get to the meat & potatoes, we're going to continue on a little longer with defining the processes and expanding our project management vocabulary.
A process group is simply a project management element. Like a permaculture element, it has inputs, outputs, and innate characteristics. And, the outputs of one element provides the inputs into another. Project management has five mainframe elements: the process groups of Initiation, Planning, Monitoring and Controlling, Executing, and Closing.
Five Elements of Project Management (officially called "Process Groups" by the Project Management Institute)
- Initiating Process Group
- Planning Process Group
- Monitoring & Controlling Process Group
- Executing Process Group
- Closing Process Group
You will note that Monitoring & Controlling and Executing are closely related in an iterative cycle of "do work, check work, adjust, do more work, check work, adjust...."
I'll write about each of these "elements" in the next several blog posts, including their inputs, outputs, innate characteristics, and how they apply to our three examples.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Karla
Karla Upton is a PMP® Certified Project Manager. Certification number 2310531.
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