Project Management Subsidiary Plans
A Project Management Plan is a formal, approved document that defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled (PMBOK Guide 4th Edition). It can either be at a summary level or detailed and maybe composed of one or more of subsidiary plans depending on the requirements of the project. Each project should be treated uniquely and needs different set of processes to achieve the desired objective, thus the project management plan will be customized to meet the project needs.
In addition to the subsidiary plans, the Project Management Plan also integrates and consolidates all the baselines from the planning processes. The subsidiary plans need to be detailed to an extent needed by the project. Changes to the Project Management Plan, once accepted or baseline, can only be made thru change requests submitted and approved thru the Perform Integrated Change Control process.
The subsidiary plans include, but are not limited to:
- Scope Management Plan
- Schedule Management Plan
- Cost Management Plan
- Quality Management Plan
- Human Resource Plan
- Communications Management Plan
- Risk Management Plan
- Procurement Management Plan
Scope Management Plan – Documents how the project scope will be defined, developed and verified / controlled. It also provides the framework in creating and defining the work breakdown structure (WBS) to a certain detail that will confirm that the project requirements are met, managed and controlled. An approved specific version of the detailed scope statement, WBS and its associated WBS dictionary is the Scope Baseline.
Schedule Management Plan – Documents the selected scheduling methodology with the corresponding scheduling tool and techniques. The Plan defines the format and establishes criteria or thresholds for controlling the project schedule. It also outlines the development of the project schedule taking into account the processes to define activities, sequence activities, estimate activity resources and durations. The final and approved schedule is the baseline that will be used to compare actual work progress to the planned activity schedule to ensure completion of the project in a timely manner.
Cost Management Plan – This plan sets out the format and establishes the criteria for planning, structuring, estimating, budgeting and controlling project costs. The Cost Management Plan sets out the level of accuracy of cost estimates; units of measures for resources; the control account or WBS component used for project cost accounting; control or variance thresholds typically expressed as percentage deviation from the baseline plan; earned value management (EVM) rules of performance measurement; and, reporting formats. Cost Management planning involves three (3) processes that include Estimate Costs; Determine Budget; and, Control Cost.
Quality Management Plan – Documents how the project management team implements the Client’s Quality Policy. The Quality Management provides the benchmarks how quality assurance will be performed for the project. In the absence of a Quality Policy, the project management team should develop one for the project and ensure that the project stakeholders are fully aware of the policy used for the project through proper distribution of information. The Quality Management Plan involves three (3) processes and these are Plan Quality; Perform Quality Assurance; and, Perform Quality Control.
Human Resource Management Plan – Identifies and documents the staffing/or organization plan delineating project roles, responsibilities and required skills, reporting relationship including the timetable for staff acquisition and/or mobilization and release. The Plan also includes identification of training needs, team building strategies and plans for recognition and rewards program. Development of the human resource plan involves four (4) processes such as Develop Human Resource Plan; Acquire Project Team; Develop Project Team; and, Manage Project Team.
Communications Management Plan – The Communication Management Plan outlines the stakeholder communication requirements, the information to be communicated including the format, content and level of detail, the reason for the distribution, the time frame and the frequency of distribution, the person responsible for communicating the information and the recipients including the methods or techniques for conveying the information. The Plan shall also set out the process of identifying and escalating issues. In developing the Communication Management Plan there are five (5) process that should be taken into account and these include Identify Stakeholders; Plan Communications; Distribute Information; Manage Stakeholders’ Expectation; and, Report Performance.
Risk Management Plan – The Risk Management Plan shall outline the strategies how to increase the probability and impact of positive events and decrease the probability and impact of negative events in a project by utilizing the processes set out by PMBOK as follows:
1. Plan Risk Management
2. Identify Risk
3. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
4. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis
5. Plan Risk Responses
6. Monitor and Control Risks
Procurement Management Plan – Documents the activities relative to purchasing or acquiring services from outside the project team or entity. An entity can either be the buyer or vendor of a service or a product.
Project Procurement Management takes into account four (4) processes namely:
1. Plan Procurements
2. Conduct Procurements
3. Administer Procurements
4. Close Procurements