Develop Project Management Plan

Defines how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled by integrating all the subsidiary plans into one coherent document. It is the master plan everything else is measured against.

Process Group Planning Knowledge Area Project Integration Management

The project management plan integrates every subsidiary plan — scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communications, risk, procurement, and stakeholder engagement — plus the baselines. The PM’s job is to make these parts consistent so they form one workable whole, not a stack of contradictory documents.

Develop Project Management Plan: key inputs and outputs — The key inputs feeding Develop Project Management Plan and the deliverables it produces — full ITTOs are listed below.

Key decisions include how much to plan up front versus progressively, what the baselines are, and how change will be controlled. The plan is developed collaboratively and tailored to the project; once baselined, it becomes the reference against which performance is judged.

Common pitfalls. A binder nobody reads; subsidiary plans that don’t reconcile, like a schedule the budget can’t fund; over-planning a project whose requirements will change; and treating the plan as fixed rather than something that evolves under change control.

Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs

Inputs

Project charter
Outputs from other processes
Enterprise environmental factors
Organizational process assets

Tools & Techniques

Expert judgment
Data gathering
Interpersonal and team skills
Meetings

Outputs

Project management plan