What is Integrated Project Management (IPM) under CMMI Maturity Level 3?

CMMI FAQ 0

28th August, 2013

Integrated Project Management (IPM) is a Process Area at CMMI Maturity Level 3 under Project Management category.

Integrated Project Management (IPM) helps in the management of the project including relevant stakeholders and their involvement. IPM defines an integrated process for the project management which is tailored from the organization’s standard process of project management.

Integrated Project Management (IPM) Implementation in Organization

1. Tailor Organizational Process: First step in IPM is to define a tailored process for the project depending on the project requirements. This tailored process is developed from the organizational standard processes.
2. Prepare an project plan(s) and integrate them: Next step for IPM is to develop project plan(s) and integrate them together. Integrated Project Plan includes planning for Quality Assurance, Risk Management, V&V Plan, CM Plan, Training Plan, Resources, Documentation, Measurement Plan, Scheduling, and Issue Management etc. Project Managers uses organizational process assets like past estimations, risk databases, lessons learnt, processes, templates and guidelines to develop the project plan (s). Project Work Environment is established and maintained based on the defined organizational work standards.
3. Establish Teams: Projects are managed using teams of professionals. Project teams are defined as per the organizational guidelines for teams. Their progress is monitored regularly by conducting regular team meetings and status reporting.
4. Project Management: Next step is to monitor and control the project using these integrated project plan(s). Project is managed using the integrated plans. Project metrics is used to manage the project and support organizational data needs. Project progress is monitored periodically and issues are addressed.
5. Contribute to organizational repository: Project Manager shall provide the project data to the organizational repository so that organization can take the benefit from their learning. This data includes estimation, planning artefacts, project measurement, risk database, lessons learnt, training data, checklists and templates.
6. Manage stakeholders and their involvement: Project Manager uses different means of communication to manage the coordination between different stakeholders. These stakeholders include project team members, senior management, client, vendors, end users etc. Project Manager manages dependencies on these stakeholders and also resolves different issues related to coordination between them.

Source: CMMI-DEV Model, CMMI Institute. Interpretation by the author.

Benefits of IPM Implementation

IPM helps in managing the projects using integrated approach and provides better control over the project progress. IPM helps in defining the project specific process, tailored from organizational processes, to help in the project management as per project needs. It also helps in establishing the teams, managing stakeholder’s involvement and issues and finally submitting the project data to the organizational repository for others to use.

Want implementation guidance for IPM in your organization

DQS India, CMMI Authorised Partner, provides training for better planning and management of projects covering topics like integrated project planing including risk management, issue management, establishing teams, scheduling.

Training is delivered through highly qualified and experienced CMMI Authorised Trainer and CMMI Consultants.