5 Process Groups that Contain all 42 Management Processes

Project Management Process Groups

Project management process groups are required for any project. They are dependent on one another and are typically performed in the same sequence on each project.

Life Cycle of Process Groups

All project processes are performed under these groups. The five project management process groups for any given project are as follows:

• Initiating: Initiating is the first phase of project. It grants the approval to commit the organization’s resources to work on the project. It contains two processes.
• Planning: Planning is the second process of project. It includes documenting requirements, budget, and work flow for the project. It contains twenty processes.
• Executing: This is the prime phase of a project where all the planned work is executed. It contains eight processes.
• Monitoring and Controlling: This process is somewhat overlapped with the executing phase. After executing process is started, the controlling and monitoring process make sure that the project progress is aligned to the planned documents. It contains ten processes.
• Closing: The last process group of the project management processes is closing. Contract closeout occurs in this phase of a project. During the closing process, formal acceptance and approval are obtained. It contains only two processes.

These processes work as different phases of the project and are interrelated and dependent on one another. One thing is to be clearly understood that the process groups are not project phases. A large or complex project comprises of separate phases or sub projects. In such projects, all of the process groups would normally be repeated for each phase or subprojects.