What is a process? According to pmbok (PMI, 1996), a process is:
“ a series of actions bringing about a result”.
This is a very vague definition, and a better description is striven for.
According to ISO 10006 (1996), a process is:
“ a set of inter-related resources and activities which transform inputs into outputs.”
This is a very mechanical view of the process, and certainly does not describe thoroughly what a process is. Andersen (1997) focuses in his description of a process that every single process has either an internal or external customer, and this is an important point that should be brought into the definition.
Benchmarking in the production environment focus on business processes. A book on benchmarking by Andersen and Pettersen (1995) defines a business process as:
• A chain of logically connected, repetitive activities; that
• makes use of the organization’s resources; to
• refine an object(physical or mental); with
• the objective of producing specified and measurable results/products; for
• internal or external customers
This five point definition was quite clear, but is maybe to detailed. In order to have a definition that can be used for the purpose of this research, an own definition was created. Based on the above definitions, the following definition has been developed and will be used in the dissertation:
Process: An activity or a logical sequence of related activities that takes an input, adds value to it, and provides an output for an internal or external customer.
What are project management processes? The ISO standard (IS0 10006, 1996) is focused on processes: “To facilitate the discussion of the guidance to quality in project management, a process approach has been adopted in this document and the project processes have been grouped into two categories: the project management processes
and the project product related processes (those who are concerned with the project product such as design, production and verification).” However, the ISO publication does not further define neither project management processes nor project product related processes. The author of this dissertation has the opinion that a publication with a set of project management processes should define the term in clear text.
The other encountered publication that focuses on project management processes by PMI (1996), defines both project management processes and product-oriented processes. These definitions that will be used by this dissertation, were brought up in Chapter 2 and follows:
Project management processes are concerned with describing and organizing the work of the project.
Product-oriented processes are concerned with specifying and creating the project product.
ISO 10006
ISO 10006 has defined a set of project management processes considered to be applicable for the majority of projects. Table 4.1a and 4.1b lists and defines these processes. It is stated that not all the processes in the table are necessarily existing in a particular project, whereas in others additional processes may be necessary.
PROCESS DESCRIPTION STRATEGIC PROCESS
Strategic process Setting the direction for the project and managing realization of the other processes
INTERDEPENDENCY MANAGEMENT PROCESSES Project initiation and
project plan development
Evaluating stakeholder requirements, preparing a project plan and initiating other processes
Interaction management Managing the interactions that occur during the project Change and configuration
management
Anticipating change and managing it across all process Closure Closing processes and obtaining feedback
SCOPE RELATED PROCESSES
Concept development Defining the broad outlines of what the project product will do Scope development and
control
Documenting the characteristics of the project product in measurable terms and controlling them
Activity definition Identifying and documenting activities and steps required to achieve the project objectives
Activity control Controlling the actual work carried out in the project TIME RELATED PROCESSES
Activity dependency planning
Identifying interrelationships and the logical interactions and dependencies among project activities
Duration estimation Estimating the duration of each activity in connection with the specific conditions and with the resources required
Schedule development Interrelating the project time objectives, activity dependencies and their durations as the framework for developing general and detailed schedules
Schedule control Controlling the realization of the project activities, for
confirming the proposed schedule or for taking adequate actions for recovering from delays
COST RELATED PROCESSES
Cost estimation Developing cost estimates for the project
Budgeting Using results from cost estimation to produce the project budget Cost Control Controlling costs and deviations from the project budget
RESOURCE RELATED PROCESSES
Resource planning Identifying, estimating, scheduling and allocating all relevant resources
Resource Control Comparing actual usage against resource plans and taking action, if needed
Table 4.1a Description of project management processes (ISO 10006, 1996)
PROCESS DESCRIPTION PERSONNEL RELATED PROCESSES Organizational structure
definition
Defining a project organizational structure tailored to suit the project needs including identifying roles in the project and defining authority and responsibility
Staff allocation process Selecting and assigning personnel with appropriate competence to suit the project needs
Team development Developing individual and team skills and ability to enhance project performance
COMMUNICATION RELATED OPERATIONAL PROCESSES
Communications planning Planning the information and communication systems of the project
Information management Making necessary information available to project organization members and other stakeholders
Communication control Controlling communication in accordance with the planned communication system
RISK RELATED PROCESSES
Risk identification Determing risks in the project
Risk estimation Evaluating the probability of risk occurrence and the impact of risk on the project
Risk response development
Developing plans for responding to risks Risk control Implementing and updating the risk plans PURCHASING RELATED PROCESSES
Purchasing planning and control
Identifying and controlling what is to be purchased and when Requirements
documentation
Compiling commercial conditions and technical requirements Subcontractor evaluation Evaluating and determining which subcontractors should be
invited to supply products
Subcontracting Issuing invitations to tender, tender evaluation, negotiation.
preparation and placing of the subcontract
Contract control Ensuring that subcontractors performance meets contractual requirements
Table 4.1b Description of project management processes (ISO 10006, 1996)
As can be seen form the table, the thirty-three -33- processes defined by ISO, are grouped into ten -10- project management process groups. The groups seems to be organized or categorized by the project management topic or knowledge area, and helps in giving an overview of the many single project management processes. The list of processes and their independent descriptions seems to be quite complete. However, there are no description or illustrations of the dependencies or inter-relationship between the processes or the process groups. This lack of description on how the different processes are inter-related, and the absolute absence of illustrations and figures, makes this document incomplete and inadequate to give a good guidance for practical use of project management processes.