Note | Introduction | The Guide, Chapter 1 - Introduction / General Scope of Project Management
Chapter 2 - Project Life Cycle and Organization
Chapter 3 - Overview of Project Management Processes for a Project / The Guide's Individual Processes
Chapter 4 - Project Integration Method | Chapter 5 - Project Scope Management
Chapters 6, 7 and 8 | Chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12

The Guide, Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.2 What is a Project?[3]
The Guide gives more examples of a project and a fuller explanation of what constitutes a project, the meaning of 'temporary' and each project's uniqueness as compared to PRINCE2.

1.2.1.3 Progressive Elaboration
Under this heading The Guide describes the idea of the gradual technical development that evolves within a project and the need to carefully control it. This is supported by two examples. PRINCE2 concentrates on the concept of management stages being different from technical stages and leaves aside any thought of the technical work, merely stating that the technical work of projects varies from one area of project management application to another. Nevertheless, they all fit within the PRINCE2 series of processes. In PRINCE2 all the 'technical elaboration' would take place, after the initial establishment of the project scope, in a series of uses of the Controlling a Stage (CS) process.[4]

1.4.1 The Project Management Framework
The Guide identifies nine divisions of project management within its framework:

• Project Integration Management
• Project Scope Management
• Project Time Management
• Project Cost Management
• Project Quality Management
• Project Human Resource Management
• Project Communications Management
• Project Risk Management
• Project Procurement Management

Project Integration Management covers those areas where processes from a number of The Guide Process Groups are required to work together. Project Scope Management handles the work to define the scope of the project. It is a mixture of some of the scoping work covered in PRINCE2's Initiation process[5] and part of the PRINCE2 technique of Product-based Planning used in the PL sub-process PL2.[6] PRINCE2's foundation for planning is based on the products required, leading to quality requirements and activities.

The Guide's Project Quality Management covers quality planning, quality assurance and quality control. PRINCE2 includes quality planning but makes a distinction between quality assurance, which it takes to be a company-wide activity, and project assurance, which it regards as those same activities as they relate to a specific project. Quality control is also covered by PRINCE2, but again is specific to each project.

The Guide's Project Time Management covers the definition of activities, sequencing, resourcing and scheduling. In PRINCE2 this is covered in parts of the Planning process from PL3 to PL6.[7] Project Cost Management covers cost estimating, budgeting and control. PRINCE2 does not cover these points in any detail, leaving this to well-established practices, such as those described in The Guide.

Project Human Resource Management covers several aspects of this subject, whereas PRINCE2 does not touch on it, other than in the context of controlling the handover of work. Project Communications Management and Project Risk Management are covered in both methods. As mentioned earlier, Project Procurement Management is covered in detail in The Guide, whereas PRINCE2 looks at procurement as one type of technical project, treated no differently from any other technical work within its structure of management stages.

Introduction

The Guide, Chapter 1 - General Scope of Project Management

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