The Six Project Management Questions and How They Relate to the Basic Process Groups of the Pmbok
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From my experience as a Strategic Partner to the South African Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), appointed to assist the department in rolling out the Recapitalisation and Development Program (RADP) projects that are associated with the on-going land reform program, I am quite positive that the project management methodology that we use invariably embraces answering all of Wysockis (2009, p. 22) so called “common sense” questions. In our project management approach, we attempt to answer these questions through invoking the relevant sub-processes of the five major project management process groups as advanced by the Project Management Institute (PMI) which according to Wysocki (2009) including: the scoping process group, the planning process group, the launching process group, the monitoring and controlling process group and the closing process group.
In rolling out the RADP projects, our project management approach begins by stating the problem that the project addresses. In this case, the department policy makers have stipulated in the project overview statement (POS) that the RADP projects are being undertaken because of a mandated requirement arising from failed land reform projects where: “.most of the six million hectares of agricultural land acquired through the land reform programme is now out of production” (Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, u.d.). Through stating this problem in the one-page description of the project, the department policy makers have engaged in one of the scoping processes group sub-processes as an attempt to provide the answer to the question “What business situation is being addressed?”
In relation to the RADP projects, the departments requirements are expressed in outcome 7 of Recapitalisation and Development Program (u.d.) as: “(a) graduating small scale (black) farmers into fully-fledged commercial farmers, and (b) food security. Specific objectives of the RADP are stated as:
To increase production;
To guarantee food security;
To graduate small farmers into commercial farmers; to create employment opportunities within the agricultural sector and;
To establish rural development rangers
The requirements have already been stated by the client (DRDLR) and are deemed complete enough to provide the solution to the problem. What is required of the project manager is to simply engage in requirements documentation sub-process of the scoping processes group and thereby answer to the question “What needs to be done?”
Having documented and internalised what needs to be done the project manager then has to proceed by engaging in the scoping processes sub process of negotiating with the client about how those needs will be met as a means to establishing the best-fit project management life cycle as part of the attempt to provide the answer to the question “What will be done?” Having undergone this sub process, the project manager then engages in the planning processes groups sub-process of defining all of the work of the project as a means to ultimately provide the answer to the question “What will be done?”
When what will be done has been determined, the project manager proceeds to engage in a range of the planning processes groups sub-processes that according to Wysocki (2009) give a description of how long it will take, what resources will be needed, and how much the solution will cost. This is done as a means to provide the answer to the question “How will it be done?” The relevant sub processes in this case include:
Estimating how long it will take to complete the work;
Estimating the resources required to complete the work;
Estimating the total cost of the work;
Sequencing the work;
Building the initial project schedule;
Analyzing and adjusting the project schedule;
Documenting the project plan and;
Gaining