The Project Guide

The purpose of a project guide is to help clarify the path for the creation of a successful project by a project manager. This type of literature can be found on the internet and on various libraries located across the country. The common names that are associated with this particular type of literature are project management guide or project management guide of knowledge (PMBOK).

No matter how it is being referred to, the project guide is used by the manager as a reference to the guidelines a project should follow, which use the standard terminology being employed in the industry. This type of reference material has only been in existence since 1987, when the first one was published. This paper was the first to break down a project by the different processes that make up the project.

The project guide breaks down the different processes in terms of documents, plans, tools, and techniques. There are two different approaches to how these processes are categorized. Some have four, while others have five. The difference between the two is that for the one with five takes the monitoring and control processes as separate, while in the other it is part of the execution phase.

The different process a project guide will explain are Initiation, Planning, Executing (Monitoring and Controlling), and Closure. Each of these has particular documents and a set of plans that make it function as a process.

There are also a set of nine areas in a project guide that are considered to be different by categorizing them as knowledge areas. These areas are the integration of management, describing the scope of the project, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communication management, risk management, and procurement management.  These are disciplines that must be planned and accomplished correctly for the overall results of a profitable endeavor.

The project guide is a set of general rules which help the manager in the creation of a project plan that has the basic outline of what other successful projects have contained. The details of each project plan is what really differentiate the many projects that are being created in the industry.

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