HOLISTIC THREADS OF PROJECT INTEGRATION: WEAVING GOLDEN VISIONS TO SUCCESSFUL DELIVERABLES

So far, we have explored various dimensions and elements of project management, from project planning to project closure. But thus far in our journey through the project planning and implementation foundations we have yet to analyze the cornerstone of successful project delivery which is project integration.

The following article analyzes the innovative insights of the article “Integration: The essential function of project management” by Linn C. Stuckenbuck aiming to understand and explore the different levels of project integration management – why they are important for project success, and the various practices that project managers can implement for achieving successful integration management.

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THE NEEDLE: PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT

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So, what exactly is project integration? (Stuckenbruck, 2008) defines project integration as the management process of aligning all project elements – tasks, components, human resources, units etc., ensuring that they fit together as a whole, operating efficiently and effectively to meet the project plan’s predetermined goals, objectives and deliverables on all project management levels.

As project managers are constantly required to give adequate attention to all project elements, processes and teams; project integration management assists them in making project cost or schedule trade-offs, which simplifies the tracking and management of the different interactions between all project elements.

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THREADS OF PROJECT INTEGRATION

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Project integration is a process that must be planned and initiated early within the project’s planning stage. This is argued to allow project managers to monitor all project elements, ensuring that they aren’t just aligned but that they function as a singular unit.

As this requires project managers are required to constantly review and update both the project’s technical and administrative elements as the project matures to provide for, and manage changes in the project’s schedule, budget, direction and resource requirements; project managers should implement integration management on strategic, technical and operational levels (Struckenbruck, 1978).

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STRATEGIC PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT LEVEL

On the strategic management level, Project integration involves the management and alignment of the project’s objectives with the stakeholder organization(s) ‘s core strategy. On this level of management, project integration management thus allows project managers to develop project processes and execution systems that are cohesively adapted to the stakeholder organization(s) ‘s strategic vision and direction.

The importance of this level of project integration is that it ensures that the project’s end product is not only successfully developed, but that it is profitable to the stakeholder organization(s), contributing to their value and social-and-economic business goals.

The standard practices required from project managers on this level of management to ensure successful strategic integration are believed to be: Conducting strategic project planning sessions with relevant stakeholders; Conducting an in-depth project SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats) analysis; and the determination of priority and critical project elements based off the stakeholder organization(s) ‘s strategic alignment objectives?(Adams & Thomas, 1991).

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TECHNICAL PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT LEVEL

On the technical management level, project integration would be the coordination and alignment of all the project ‘s related technology, hardware, and software systems to prevent the occurrence of possible technical gaps, issues and delays, ultimately enhancing the overall development and performance of the project.

As such, technical project integration enables project managers to implement integrated collaboration platforms between team members for adequate and efficient project data distribution, documentation management, resource allocation and progress monitoring through earned value management (EVM) systems ( Asana , 2024).

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OPERATIONAL PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT LEVEL

This level of project integration management solely focuses on the integrated coordination of all project management activities within the project’s different functional areas. Usually focused on the project’s execution phase and the more practical processes of project development, operational project integration management enables project managers to effectively and efficiently monitor the allocation of project resources to ensure that the balance between project components competing to meet the project’s objectives is maintained (Schwartz, 2023).

This further provides project managers with the ability to predictively identify and communicate conflicting cost, quality and time goals, allowing them to prioritize processes and activities maintaining alignment between project progress and stakeholder objectives based on the identified project constraints and stakeholder requirements.

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WEAVING EFFECTIVE PROJECT INTEGRATION

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Having identified the different management levels to which project integration management must be implemented to achieve holistic project development, it is evident that it is a management process that intertwines with the various project management processes and functions from a project’s conception phase to its completion phase. This is argued to allow the following benefits to be experienced in the various project phases (Stretton, 2016):

• Clear project objectives and goals that are aligned and function with the stakeholder organization(s) expectations and requirements
• Effective and efficient systems of communication and collaboration between all project teams and stakeholders
• Efficient allocation and management of all project resources

Adequate project integration management thus also provides assistance and benefits to other project management functions and deliverables, such as:

• It enables the development of a detailed project charter that not only formally authorizes the project but accurately identifies all the project’s objectives, scope details, internal-and-external stakeholders, and potential project risks and constraints.
• An integrated project management plan that specifies the project’s execution, monitoring and control strategies, processes and requirements of all the project components on strategic, technical, and operational levels.
• Allows project managers to focus on the project team’s development and project quality assurance throughout the execution phase due to effective resource management and stakeholder engagement.
• Enables the effective implementation of project supervision systems, providing project managers with more flexibility to implement integrated change control procedures to manage project changes against the original project plans.

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CONCLUSION

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Holistically binding all the project phases, components and elements together, the threads of project integration weave the visions of stakeholders and project teams into exceptionally successful projects. Project integration management harmonizes a project’s strategic, technical and operational management levels through aligning, coordinating and managing project objectives, resources, and activities as the project progresses and matures. This practice is truly much more than a single step in the journey of effective project management, it is the management threads that weave through all project management functions stitching together a badge of project development success.

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REFERENCES

Adams, J. R. & Thomas, M., 1991. Integrating strategic project management. PM Network, 5(8), pp. 37-40.

Schwartz, B., 2023. Strategic Project Management: Planning Strategic Projects. [Online] Available at: https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/strategic-project-management [Accessed 30 June 2024].

Stretton, A., 2016. Project integration, interfaces and context management: Project Integration. PM World Journal, 5(7).

Struckenbruck, L. C., 1978. Project manager--the systems integrator. Project Management Quarterly, 9(3), pp. 31-38.

Stuckenbruck, L. C., 2008. Integration: The Essential Function of Project Management. In: The Project Management Handbook. s.l.:s.n.

Team Asana, 2024. Guide to project integration management (7 step process). [Online] Available at: https://asana.com/resources/project-integration-management [Accessed 30 June 2024].

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