In the previous article, we discussed how The Customizable and Adaptable Methodology for Managing Projects™ differs from the PMBOK® Guide, specifically, in the area of planning. The main point was that there should be two plans instead of 1, one for management and one for the details.


 
In today’s discussion, we will focus on the management planning processes which lead to the Stage Management Plan. In these article we will address the detailed planning processes, leading to the Stage Detailed Plan.

PMBOK® Guide Perspective

As discussed already [previous article], there are ten management planning processes; out of the twenty four in the planning process group. There is one management planning process for each knowledge area. These include “Plan Scope Management”, “Plan Risk Management”[1], and the others. For a listing of these processes, please refer to the PMBOK® Guide.
Please note that the PMBOK® Guide does not separate the processes into two parts; the split is by the author.

CAM²P™ Perspective

Alternatively, per the CAM²P™ standard model, management planning consists of:

1. The ten management planning processes from the PMBOK® Guide,
2. Other management plans from the PMBOK® Guide but that do not have dedicated processes for them, such as configuration management, process improvement, and change management.
3. Other planning processes that are not in the guide, such as safety, health, environmental, sustainability, and others that might be domain specific.

The above are the primary components of the CAM²P™ Stage or Project Management Plan.
All the stages’ management plans are somewhat similar and focus on the work of the given stage, whereas the project management plan is higher level and is for the whole project. Some of the above plans might not be applicable on certain projects; a function of the project domain.
The table below presents the template for a typical stage management plan.
Notice, the structure is somewhat different than the PMBOK® Guide but does cover all of the subsidiary management plans mentioned earlier.
Although there are many components, a stage management plan could be quite simple, especially in organizations where there are mature project management practices and an effective organizational project management system. In other words, most of the elements below could be a line or a few lines at most[2].

 
 
[1] All references to the PMBOK® Guide or the names of the processes is per the PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition is copyrights – all rights reserved – to PMI.
[2] The other Sections of this e-book will include examples.
[3] The team members that will develop the stage detailed plan. They could be the same people as the stage management team or include the stage management team and a few subject matter experts.
[4] This would be required only in the first stage, the project pre-launch stage and will be superseded when the project management plan is developed during the project launch stage.