THE FIVE BASIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES ARE AS FOLLOWS

• Initiating—a description of the product of the project, initial documentation of project objectives, and assignment of a project manager

• Planning—a documented project plan and documented updates to the plan as the project progresses

• Executing—verifiably completed project deliverables

• Controlling—periodic measurements of progress vs. plan, corrective action when needed, and identification of when the project is done

• Closing-documented acceptance of the results of the project

These outcomes provide a direct link between the processes—the output from one becomes an input to another. Each project management process can then be described in terms of its:

• Inputs—documents (e.g., a scope statement) or documentable items (e.g., task dependencies) that will be acted upon

• Tools and techniques—mechanisms (e.g., earned value computations) applied to the inputs (e.g., task results) to create the outputs (e.g., a progress report)

• Outputs—documents or documentable items that are the result of the process

In addition, these processes are not discrete, one-time events; they are iterative and repetitive and occur at varying levels of intensity throughout the project.