CAPM & PMP Exam Study Notes:
Project Integration Management
By: Alvin the PM | Last Updated: June 12, 2021
Topic: CAPM Exam and PMP Exam Certification Study Notes
Listed below are my CAPM Exam & PMP Exam Study Notes for Project Integration Management that I’ve used to pass my own CAPM Exam, and which I also intend to use for my 2021 PMP Exam Preparation.
Please Note: These notes are meant to be a supplementary aid, and not as your primary study material for your CAPM Exam and/or PMP Exam. This is meant to help clarify any confusing topics and explain the most challenging concepts which are difficult to understand & remember. Please reference your own Exam Prep Book or your PMBOK Guide for further detail.
If you find any of my website notes and Youtube Videos helpful to pass your CAPM Exam or PMP Exam, considering supporting me by buying me a cup of “virtual” coffee by clicking the below link.
❤️ SUPPORT Alvin the PM by buying me “virtual” coffee ❤️
I’ve listed the Knowledge Area below, with an explanation of the following:
1) Overview of each Process Group associated with Project Integration Management
2) Reference Section & Page in PMBOK 6th Edition
3) ITTO Summary & Analysis (Input, Tool, Technique, Output)
>> Any items marked with an * asterisk are the unique ones & critical topics to master
4) Key Concepts & Helpful Exam Prep Information
Overview of Integration Management
- Integration Management is split up into the following 5 Process Groups:
1) Develop Project Charter (IN)
2) Develop Project Management Plan (PL)
3) Direct & Manage Work (EX)
4) Manage Knowledge (EX)
5) Monitor & Control Work (M&C)
6) Perform Change Control (M&C)
7) Closing (Close) - Purpose: All areas of project management do NOT occur independently from each other. Instead, each process occurs in-sync with each other, and you need a process to help ‘integrate’ and coordinate everything together.
>> Think of this like a balancing act – you’re always juggling and putting all aspects of a project together.
Master the ITTO Video Series
- Watch my MASTER THE ITTOs Video Series below to master the ITTOs for each Process within Integration Management:
>> MASTER ITTOs for Integration Management, Part 1: WATCH HERE
>> MASTER ITTOs for Integration Management, Part 2: WATCH HERE
Process #1: Develop Project Charter
1.1 Integration Mgmt: Develop Project Charter (IN)
-Pg 75, PMBOK 6th Ed.
Purpose: This process produces one of the most important project artifacts for initiating and proceeding with the next steps of a project – the Project Charter. The Project Charter links the project to the organization’s goals, establishes a project’s formal approval, and signifies to the entire Team the project’s importance and commitment from your organization’s leadership.
ITTO Analysis: Develop Project Charter
1) What do You Need? (Input)
– *Business Case, Agreements, EEF/OPA
2) What is the Result? (Output)
-Assumption Log, *Project Charter
3) How Do You Accomplish It? (Tool/Technique)
-Expert Judgment, Meetings, Data Gathering, Interpersonal & Team Skills
>> Data Gathering: Interviews, Focus Groups, Brainstorming
>> Interpersonal & Team Skills: Managing Conflicts & Meetings, Facilitation
Key Concepts:
– The Project Charter is NOT a contract because money is not involved with the approval & signing off of the Project Charter. Instead, it is a document which contains high-level information of the project, and is signed off by the Project Sponsor.
– The Project Charter’s purpose is to formally authorize the existence of a project and to begin allocating resources.
– Throughout your project, you would typically reference the Project Charter to drive a common understanding of the project’s goals, background, high-level requirements, and key milestones
– Understand the difference between the Business Case vs Project Charter:
>> Business Case captures the business need and an analysis (i.e. cost-benefit analysis) for determining whether the outcomes of a project are worth the financial investment and application of all required resources. It is the key document used to create the Project Charter.
– The Assumption Log documents exactly what it states… the assumptions of any of the project’s tasks. But, it also includes any constraints for completing the work.
Process #2: Develop Project Management Plan
1.2 Integration Mgmt: Develop Project Management Plan (PL)
-Pg 82, PMBOK 6th Ed.
Purpose: This process is focused on creating the ultimate document, called the Project Management Plan, which defines what work will be performed for your project and how you and your Team will execute this work.
>> Alvin’s Tip: Think of this as your project’s ‘Bible” and “Go-to Reference” for anything related to your project.
ITTO Analysis: Develop Project Management Plan
1) What do You Need? (Input)
– *Project Charter, Other Process Outputs, EEF/OPA
2) What is the Result? (Output)
–*Project Management Plan
3) How Do You Accomplish It? (Tool/Technique)
-Expert Judgment, Meetings, Data Gathering, Interpersonal & Team Skills
>> Data Gathering: Checklists, Interviews, Focus Groups, Brainstorming
>> Interpersonal & Team Skills: Managing Conflicts & Meetings, Facilitation
Key Concepts:
– The Project Management Plan consists of :
>> (1) Ten Constituent Management Plans (i.e. from each Knowledge Area)
>> (2) Approved Project Baselines (Scope, Schedule, Cost)
>> (3) Other Elements (such as: project life cycle and development approach)
– The subsidiary Management Plans are based upon the corresponding Knowledge Area: Scope & Requirements, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Resource, Stakeholder, Communications, Risk, and Procurement.
– Changes to the Project Management Plan can only be implemented after it has been approved through a Change Request via the Integrated Change Control process (Alvin’s Tip: This concept is commonly tested on situational questions covered on the PMP or CAPM Exam).
Key Terms to Remember:
– Scope Baseline: Includes the Scope Statement, WBS, and WBS Dictionary
– Schedule Baseline: The initial planned project schedule
– Cost Baseline: Initially planned & approved project budget
– Change Management Plan: Outlines the process for how Change Requests are created, reviewed & approved throughout the project’s lifecycle
– Configuration Management Plan: Focused on controlling the specification level of specific items
– Performance Measurement Baseline: This integrates the baselines for the triple constraints of scope, schedule, and cost
Process #3: Direct and Manage Project Work
1.3 Integration Mgmt: Direct and Manage Project Work (EX)
-Pg 90, PMBOK 6th Ed.
Purpose: Guiding & leading your team so that the project’s work can be executed, with the goal of completing the project’s Deliverables
ITTO Analysis: Direct and Manage Project Work
1) What do You Need? (Input)
– *Project Mgmt Plan, *Approved Change Requests, Project Documents, OPA/EEF
>> Project Documents: Lessons Learned Register, Change Log, Risk Documents (Risk Register, Risk Report), Requirements Traceability Matrix, Project Schedule & Communications, Milestone List,
2) What is the Result? (Output)
– *Deliverables; *Work Performance Data; Issue Log; Change Requests; and, Updates to Project Mgmt Plan, Project Documents, & OPAs
3) How Do You Accomplish It? (Tool/Technique)
-Expert Judgment, Meetings, *PMIS (aka. Project Mgmt Information System)
Key Concepts:
– During your project’s lifecycle, you will spend most of your time in this process group – leading your team and managing the project’s work.
– Alvin’s Tip: This process is where you’ll be collecting Work Performance Data, producing the project’s key Deliverables, collecting any in-process Lessons Learned, capturing any new issues or risks, with the end goal of accomplishing your project’s objectives
– Remember that APPROVED Change Requests are an INPUT into Direct and Manage Project Work. The reason is that the Change Requests must be approved before you can actually execute and implement them into your project’s plan.
– Change Requests is one of the Key Outputs of this process. As a result of performing your team’s work and creating Project Deliverables, it’s inevitable for your Stakeholders to request for changes to the project documents or performance baselines. For example, perhaps a risk came to fruition and the shipment of your raw material has been delayed by 4 more weeks. Therefore, you and your Team will need to submit a Change Request to evaluate the project’s impact and request for an extension to the schedule baseline.
– What is included as part of a Change Request?
>> Corrective & Preventive Actions, Defect Repair, or Updates to project documents
Key Terms to Remember:
– Change Requests: A formally documented “request” to update your project’s documents or performance baselines (scope, schedule, and cost). These can be outputs from issues, and can be created by any stakeholder on your project. Remember – ANY STAKEHOLDER can create a Change Request.
– Work Performance Data: These are the raw data points, observations, or measurements collected while your team’s work is being completed. For example, let’s say you’re reviewing your project’s performance. In this instance, a couple examples of Work Performance Data would include actual completion dates of certain tasks, number of nonconformances discovered during the manufacturing build, number of bugs found in the code, or actual cost spent thus far.
>> Alvin’s Tip – Make sure you thoroughly understand the difference between Work Performance Data vs Information vs Reports.
– Deliverables: These are the outcomes of your project, and can include reports, documents, protocols, engineering drawings, project management plans, etc, in order to complete your project
Process #4: Manage Project Knowledge
1.4 Integration Mgmt: Manage Project Knowledge (EX)
-Pg 98, PMBOK 6th Ed.
Purpose: Using knowledge that your team already has, and creating new knowledge in order to achieve the goals of the project. In other words, how can we take advantage of the knowledge that our Team and organization already has and use this to facilitate and lead our project?
ITTO Analysis: Manage Project Knowledge
1) What do You Need? (Input)
– Project Mgmt Plan, *Deliverables, Project Documents, OPA/EEF
>> Project Documents: Lessons Learned Register, Stakeholder Register, Team Assignments, Resource Breakdown Structure
>> Keep in mind that the Deliverables were an output of the previous process of Direct and Manage Project Work
2) What is the Result? (Output)
– *Lessons Learned Register; and, Updates to Project Mgmt Plan & OPAs
3) How Do You Accomplish It? (Tool/Technique)
-Expert Judgment, *Knowledge Management, *Information Management, Interpersonal and Team Skills
>>Interpersonal and Team Skills: Active listening, Facilitation, Leadership, Networking, and Political Awareness
Key Concepts:
– Understand the difference between explicit and tacit knowledge
>> Explicit Knowledge – Knowledge which can be easily expressed with text, numbers, and visuals
>> Implicit Knowledge – Knowledge which is more challenging to express as this is inherent to the person’s beliefs, skillset, and experience, and depends on the trust built in the environment
– This process is all about capturing the knowledge of the team members, sharing this with others to facilitate a knowledge transfer and increase the likelihood of a project’s success. And, capturing these “lessons” into the lessons learned register
Key Terms to Remember:
*Understand the difference between Knowledge Management and Information Management:
(1) Knowledge Management: This is about sharing what people know. If this concept pops up on your exam, ask yourself, “what are the ways to facilitate the sharing and creation of knowledge ?”
>> This sharing of knowledge can be accomplished through meetings, discussions, forums, workshops, and training.
(2) Information Management: This is about creating information and connecting people to this information. Examples of this include: Lessons Learned Register, a type of an online repository, Library, or a PMIS.
Process #5: Monitor & Control Project Work
1.5 Integration Mgmt: Monitor & Control Project Work (M&C)
-Pg 105, PMBOK 6th Ed.
Purpose: Keeping an eye on the project’s progress and whether the team is on track to meet the project’s goals & objectives.
>> Alvin’s Tip: How is the current status of your project (regarding the triple constraints of scope, schedule, and cost), and do any actions need to be followed to improve the project’s performance?
ITTO Analysis: Monitor & Control Project Work
1) What do You Need? (Input)
– Project Mgmt Plan, Project Documents, *Work Performance Information, *Agreements, OPA/EEF
>> Project Documents: Logs (Assumptions, Issue), Basis of Estimates, Cost & Schedule Forecasts, Lessons Learned Register, Risk Register & Report, Quality Report, Milestone List
2) What is the Result? (Output)
– *Change Requests, *Work Performance Reports, and, Updates to Project Mgmt Plan & Project Documents
3) How Do You Accomplish It? (Tool/Technique)
-Expert Judgment, Decision Making, Data Analysis, Meetings
>> Decision Making: *Voting (unanimity, majority or plurality)
>> *Data Analysis: There are quite a few, but these are listed out here – Alternatives, Cost-Benefit, Earned Value, Root Cause, Trend, and Variance Analysis
Key Concepts:
– Understand the difference between each Analysis Technique:
(1) Alternative Analysis – Which “alternate” corrective action is the best to put into place due to changes in the project’s plan?
(2) Cost-Benefit Analysis – Which corrective action gives you the best Return on your Investment given how much it will cost to implement?
(3) Earned Value Analysis – Evaluates the monetary value associated with work being performed vs what was planned. Common metrics include Earned Value, Planned Value, Actual Cost, Schedule Variance, Cost Variance, and Schedule & Cost Performance Indices. Refer to Cost Management for more detail on this.
(4) Root Cause Analysis – What is the root cause for why an issue has occurred?
(5) Trend Analysis – What is our project’s future performance predicted to be, based upon our historical data? In other words, let’s look at our historical “trends” and data and see if we need to take any immediate corrective or preventive actions in anticipation of potential overruns or slippages.
(6) Variance Analysis – What is the difference between our Planned & Actual Performance?
>> Alvin’s Tip: When you see the word “variance” think of it meaning a “difference”. Just by remembering it in this way will help you remember what the difference is between the different formulas for Earned Value Management.
Key Terms to Remember:
*Understand the workflow for how Work Performance information is used as an input during Monitor and Control Project Work, to ultimately become an output of Work Performance Reports.
– Work Performance Reports: As part of Monitoring and Controlling your project’s work, you’ll be analyzing and quantifying your project’s work, and summarizing this in easy-to-understand visual and graphical formats. These Work Performance Reports are a collection of these “reports” and include Status or Progress Reports, such as graphs, charts, histograms, or summaries.
Process #6: Perform Integrated Change Control
1.6 Integration Mgmt: Perform Integrated Change Control (M&C)
-Pg 113, PMBOK 6th Ed.
Purpose: What happens when changes occur which impact your project’s deliverables, or each of the different Knowledge Areas (project’s scope, schedule, cost, quality, etc)? This step is all about formalizing the process of reviewing change requests initiated by any stakeholder, and defining the workflow for approving and managing these changes through the Change Control Board.
ITTO Analysis: Perform Integrated Change Control
1) What do You Need? (Input)
– Project Mgmt Plan, Project Documents, *Work Performance Reports, *Change Requests, OPA/EEF
>> Project Documents: Risk Report, Requirements Traceability Matrix, Basis of Estimates
>> Project Management Plan: Management Plans (Change & Configuration), Baselines (Scope, Schedule, and Cost)
2) What is the Result? (Output)
– *Approved Change Requests, and, Updates to Project Mgmt Plan & Project Documents (*Change Log)
>> The Change Log is a key document that is updated as a part of Integrated Change Control to capture what changes have occurred or implemented after approving Change Requests
3) How Do You Accomplish It? (Tool/Technique)
-Expert Judgment, *Change Control Tools, Decision Making, Data Analysis, Meetings
>> Decision Making: *Voting, Autocratic Decision Making, Multicriteria decision analysis
>> *Data Analysis: Alternatives and Cost-Benefit Analysis
–Meetings are a key tool for Performing Integrated Change Control, since they are used to hold Change Control Meetings to review and approve or reject Change Requests
Key Concepts:
– Understand that this process is one of the defining responsibilities of a project manager, and occurs at any point from project initiation to closure.
– Change Requests are required to go through a formal Change Control Process after a project’s initial baselines have been captured.
– A common situational question which pops up often on the CAPM Exam or PMP Exam involves evaluating Change Requests and their impact to the project. Just keep in mind that any Change Request must be approved by the Change Control Board before they can be implemented.
– *Alvin’s Tip: Who approves the Change Requests? The project manager does NOT approve change requests. The Change Control Board, and customer or sponsor, are the ones who approve Change Requests.
Key Terms to Remember:
– Configuration Management Plan describes which project artifacts require revision control and approval through Change Requests
– Configuration Control: Focuses on the specifications of project deliverables and the process
– Change Control: Focuses on the process for the review and approval of updates to project baselines and documents
Process #7: Close Project / Phase
1.7 Integration Mgmt: Close Project / Phase (CL)
-Pg 121, PMBOK 6th Ed.
Purpose: Woo hoo! Your project is getting ready to wrap up, and you’re about 95-99% of the way through!! This is a huge milestone and you should be proud of yourself and your Team for completing all areas of the project! It’s in this process that you’ll be finalizing all activities, and if everything is completed, you’ll be releasing all resources from your project.
ITTO Analysis: Close Project / Phase (CL)
1) What do You Need? (Input)
– Project Charter, Accepted Deliverables, Project Management Plan, Project Documents, Business Documents, Procurement Documentation, Agreements, OPAs
>> Project Documents: Logs (Assumptions, Change, Issue, Risk Register & Lessons Learned Register), Basis of Estimates, Milestone List, Project Communications, QC Measurements, Quality Reports, Risk Report, Requirements Documentation
>> Business Documents: Business Case, Business Management Plan
>> Project Management Plan: Management Plans
2) What is the Result? (Output)
– *Final Product/Service; Final Report; Updates to Project Documents & OPAs (*Lessons Learned Register)
3) How Do You Accomplish It? (Tool/Technique)
-Expert Judgment, Data Analysis, Meetings
>> *Data Analysis: Document, Regression, Trend, and Variance Analysis
Key Concepts:
– The key output from this process is the creation of the Final Product and Final Report, as well as updating the Lessons Learned Register
Practice Questions – Quiz Yourself!
Here are the links to Quiz Videos I’ve made to test your knowledge on Integration Management:
CAPM Exam Practice Question Set #1 – Integration Management
CAPM Exam Practice Question Set #2 – Integration Management
Conclusion
I hope you found the above information helpful with your Project Management Exam Prep Journey! If you found this useful, please feel free to SHARE and RECOMMEND this website with a friend. My goal is to help other Project Managers pass their own CAPM and PMP Exam, and become Certified in Project Management.
Cheers, Alvin