From the course: Project Management Foundations: Integration

Define integration management

From the course: Project Management Foundations: Integration

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Define integration management

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- Project management without integration is like corn flakes without milk. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound too enticing. So, what exactly is integration management? And more importantly, why is it such a big deal? Integration management determines the optimal way to accomplish project objectives and put systems in place to manage interdependencies between the various processes and project management activities within the process groups. As a young adult, you were probably warned against becoming a jack of all trades and a master of none. Well, whoever came up with that slogan obviously didn't understand project management. Good project managers are jacks of all trades and masters of none, at least in the traditional sense. However, when you dig a little deeper, you see that project managers are masters of something, integration management. It's quite possibly the most important role project managers play. In fact, it's the primary reason for their existence. Here's the thing, integration management oversees the entire project and combines all of the knowledge areas. This is critical to project success. Every process group, including initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing benefits from integration management. It makes your scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communications, risk, procurement, and stakeholder management work well together. To meet stakeholders' expectations, trade-offs have to be made between competing objectives. Some of these include making choices about scope, schedule, cost, and many others. They're applied from the start of the project through completion. This is how equilibrium is maintained throughout the project. If you're still unsure about the importance of integration management, imagine a group of disconnected team members trying to complete project deliverables, but they lack clear direction, communication, alignment, and change control. Does this sound like project bliss to you? Without integration management, there would be pure chaos on projects. Strong integration management helps avoid misunderstandings and keeps everyone focused on working towards the end goal.

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