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The project management information system
The project management information system, or PMIS as you will see it referred to in the PMBOK guide, is the coherent organization of the information required for an organization to execute projects successfully. That of course is a bit of a mouthful, so what does that actually mean?
Typically it’s one or more software applications – so it’s not just one IT software application it’s a whole bunch of applications – and the process that’s associated with those software applications for collecting and using project information, most typically with the activities related to the project. It relates to who’s doing what, and when they are doing it. And that would relate to the schedule – when these activities are being done, and potentially to the scope as well. Scope is being ticked off as we’re going along on our project, and that will impact what activities are done, and the activities need to be assigned along a schedule so that we understand when these activities are going to be completed.
All of these things you can’t just rely on word of mouth for this to happen – you need to put them somewhere so that people can see them and understand what’s being done as part of your project. And that is where our PMIS comes in.
So it’s not just one IT system, it’s an entire system or approach including tools and processes. It’s the different cogs and they all intertwine and they all relate to each other, and they help move each other as part of the whole system. Your project measurement information system would include things like scheduling software tools, work authorization systems for work packages (i.e. who they’re being assigned to, who’s receiving them, are they able to work on them?), configuration management systems (i.e. the change process).
Are you changing the scope, who does that go to, does it go to the project sponsor? What’s the process there? And this IT system would facilitate that configuration management.
Document management systems, so where are all the documents being held? Information collection interfaces to other automated systems, so corporate knowledge bases, lessons learned or perhaps procurement systems that you might need if you’re hiring people or resources. Automated gathering and reporting on key performance indicators or KPIs can also be a part of this system, for example how is the project tracking?
You’ve probably used a project management information system or part of a project management information system in your life already. Some of these things will include a Kanban board, if you’ve used Atlassian JIRA or Trello, this is very simply a Kanban board where we’re moving tasks and activities across the board from “in progress” or the backlog through to “done”. And that’s how we’re tracking those activities, it’s very very simple. You might have an internal company SharePoint page, and that’s where you’re keeping all the documents for your project. Or you might have a Confluence page or something similar. The IT system itself doesn’t matter. But it does matter that you have something to hold the documents, for future projects to learn from and also for the governance around your project. This also helps the governing bodies (such as a project management office) see the activities, and that the proper governance has been checked off, that you’ve done the proper documents for procurement, for hiring people, or you’ve done the proper documents for making a change to the scope for example.
Lastly, resource calendars or an online project schedule. You might be able to see see Billy or Fiona or Helen for example, all these different people and you can see when they’re assigned to the activities and also when they are available to work on your project. That’s a very useful part of the information of your project, and that is an outline of the project management information system.
– David McLachlan