Tailoring Considerations

Question 1

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Integration Management.

Answer 1

• Project life cycle. What is an appropriate project life cycle? What phases should comprise the project life cycle?
• Development life cycle. What development life cycle and approach are appropriate for the product, service, or result? Is a predictive or adaptive approach appropriate? If adaptive, should the product be developed incrementally or iteratively? Is a hybrid approach best?
• Management approaches. What management processes are most effective based on the organizational culture and the complexity of the project?
• Change. How will change be managed in the project?
• Governance. What control boards, committees, and other stakeholders are part of the project? What are the project status reporting requirements?
• Lessons learned. What information should be collected throughout and at the end of the project? How will historical information and lessons learned by made available to future projects?
• Benefits. When and how should benefits be reported: at the end of the project or at the end of each iteration or phase?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 4.0 - Project Integration Management, p. 74

Question 2

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Scope Management.

Answer 2

• Knowledge and requirements management. Does the organization have formal or informal knowledge and requirements management systems? What guidelines should the project manager establish for requirements to be reused in the future?
• Validation and control. Does the organization have existing formal or informal validation and control-related policies, procedures, and guidelines?
• Development approach. Does the organization use agile approaches in managing projects? Is the development approach iterative or incremental? Is a predictive approach used? Will a hybrid approach be productive?
• Stability of requirements. Are there areas of the project with unstable requirements? Do unstable requirements necessitate the use of lean, agile, or other adaptive techniques until they are stable and well defined?
• Governance. Does the organization have formal or informal audit and governance policies, procedures, and guidelines?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 5.0 - Project Scope Management, p. 133

Question 3

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Schedule Management.

Answer 3

• Life cycle approach. What is the most appropriate life cycle approach that allows for a more detailed schedule?
• Resource availability. What are the factors influencing durations (such as the correlation between available resources and their productivity)?
• Project dimensions. How will the presence of project complexity, technological uncertainty, product novelty, pace, or progress tracking (such as earned value, percentage complete, red-yellow-green (stop light) indicators) impact the desired level of control?
• Technology support. Is technology used to develop, record, transmit, receive, and store project schedule model information and is it readily accessible?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 6 – Project Schedule Management, p. 178

Question 4

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Cost Management.

Answer 4

• Knowledge management. Does the organization have a formal knowledge management and financial database repository that a project manager is required to use and that is readily accessible?
• Estimating and budgeting. Does the organization have existing formal or informal cost estimating and budgeted-related policies, procedures, and guidelines?
• Earned value management. Does the organization use earned value management in managing projects?
• Use of agile approach. Does the organization use agile methodologies in managing projects? How does this impact cost estimating?
• Governance. Does the organization have formal or informal audit and governance policies, procedures, and guidelines?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 7 - Project Cost Management, p. 234

Question 5

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Quality Management.

Answer 5

• Policy compliance and auditing. What quality policies and procedures exist in the organization? What quality tools, techniques, and templates are used in the organization?
• Standards and regulatory compliance. Are there any specific quality standards in the industry that need to be applied? Are there any specific governmental, legal or regulatory constraints that need to be taken into consideration?
• Continuous improvement. How will quality improvement be managed in the project? Is it managed at the organizational level or at the level of each project?
• Stakeholder engagement. Is there a collaborative environment for stakeholders and suppliers?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 8 - Project Quality Management, p. 276

Question 6

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Resource Management.

Answer 6

• Diversity. What is the diversity background of the team?
• Physical location. What is the physical location of team members and physical resources?
• Industry-specific resources. What special resources are needed in the industry?
• Acquisition of team members. How will team members be acquired for the project? Are team resources full-time or part-time on the project?
• Management of team. How is team development managed for the project? Are there organizational tools to manage team development or will new ones need to be established? Are there team members who have special needs? Will the team need special training to manage diversity?
• Life cycle approaches. What life cycle approach will be used on the project?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 9 – Project Resource Management, p. 311

Question 7

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Communications Management.

Answer 7

• Stakeholders. Are the stakeholders internal or external to the organization, or both?
• Physical location. What is the physical location of team members? Is the team colocated? Is the team in the same geographical area? Is the team distributed across multiple time zones?
• Communications technology. What technology is available to develop, record, transmit, retrieve, track, and store communication artifacts? What technologies are most appropriate and cost effective for communicating to stakeholders?
• Language. Language is a main factor to consider in communication activities. Is one language used? Or are many languages used? Have allowances been made to adjust to the complexity of team members from diverse language groups?
• Knowledge management. Does the organization have a formal knowledge management repository? Is the repository used?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 10 - Project Communications Management, p. 365

Question 8

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Risk Management.

Answer 8

• Project size. Does the project’s size in terms of budget, duration, scope, or team size require a more detailed approach to risk management? Or is it small enough to justify a simplified risk process?
• Project complexity. Is a robust risk approach demanded by high levels of innovation, new technology, commercial arrangements, interfaces, or external dependencies that increase project complexity? Or is the project simple enough that a reduced risk process will suffice?
• Project importance. How strategically important is the project? Is the level of risk increased for this project because it aims to produce breakthrough opportunities, addresses significant blocks to organizational performance, or involves major product innovation?
• Development approach. Is this a waterfall project, where risk processes can be followed sequentially and iteratively, or does the project follow an agile approach where risk is addressed at the start of each iteration as well as during its execution?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 11 - Project Risk Management, p. 400

Question 9

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Procurement Management.

Answer 9

• Complexity of procurement. Is there one main procurement or are there multiple procurements at different times with different sellers that add to the complexity of the procurements?
• Physical location. Are the buyers and sellers in the same location, or reasonably close, or in different time zones, countries, or continents?
• Governance and regulatory environment. Are local laws and regulations regarding procurement activities integrated with the organization’s procurement policies? How does this affect contract auditing requirements?
• Availability of contractors. Are there available contractors who are capable of performing the work?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 12 - Project Procurement Management, p. 465

Question 10

Identify tailoring considerations for Project Stakeholder Management.

Answer 10

• Stakeholder diversity. How many stakeholders are there? How diverse is the culture within the stakeholder community?
• Complexity of stakeholder relationships. How complex are the relationships within the stakeholder community? The more networks a stakeholder or stakeholder group participates in, the more complex the networks of information and misinformation the stakeholder may receive.
• Communication technology. What communication technology is available? What support mechanisms are in place to ensure that best value is achieved from the technology?

PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition, 13 – Project Stakeholder Management, p. 506