13 – Three Levels of Integration

– See All The PMBOK Lessons – 

Three Levels of IntegrationThree Parts To Integration

There are three parts to integration within project management, and integration is the first process group that you’ll come across in the PMBOK guide.

The project sponsor usually kicks off a project through a business need or a business charter and they are also usually the ones funding the project. You will need to understand the strategic objectives from them and then ensure alignment of your project to meet those project objectives.

It is continuous communication that you’ll need to go through with the project sponsor to make sure that you are always going to be on track to delivering that business value.

Underneath that we’ve got the project team and the team members, and all the different moving parts of a project. We need to work with that team to focus on what’s really essential. We’re integrating all the processes, all the knowledge and all of the people involved to make it happen.

When we’re integrating something, whether it’s the project management processes or the different knowledge areas of a project, or the teams that we were talking about before, there are three levels of integration that you’ll come across whether in everyday life or as a project manager.

As a project manager we’re using a process level of integration, such as the processes outlined in the project management body of knowledge (the PMBOK guide). Knowing when they overlap and knowing when to use some or to discard some is important.

Cognitive level of integration involves a deep understanding of all of the processes the skills and the tools to drive a project success.

Context level of integration is where we’re changing the way a process is used, given a different context, situation or scenario.

So we’ve got processes up the top, we understand them deeply in the middle with a cognitive level of integration, and lastly we know when to change them or when to modify them at the context level, because we know them so deeply and so well. And that is the ultimate aim for you as a project manager, and a person doing the PMP.

There are different levels of complexity with integration – you might have system behavior, the interdependencies of components and their systems and how they interact and are related. This can get quite complex. Human behavior is always complex as well, and if someone’s having a bad day they may act differently. All these things are diverse and individuals are very different and groups can have set ways of working that you need to be aware of when you are managing a project.

Lastly ambiguity and uncertainty of emerging issues. These things can come out of left field, and they do. You will come across this quite often – something will happen maybe it’s a regulatory change, maybe it is a business change, maybe it’s an organizational change but something will happen and you will need to manage the ambiguity that arises out of that when you’re going through your project.

– David McLachlan

– See All The PMBOK Lessons –