What is Planning Process Group?

In layman term, the Planning process group is the place where the PM, project teams decides what they want, how to do, when to do, who to do, money needed, time needed and so on. Once these are decided, PM will pen down every thing in formal document & gets every one’s agreement and move to next phase. This process group is the key phase in all projects and decides the fate of the project.

As usual now, we will go for PMBOK 3 definition.

The Planning process is the process group of formalizing and confirming the project goals and objectives. It also creates the project management plan to achieve project objectives.

Planning process group literally visits & covers all areas of project management. It includes budgets,activity definition, scope planning, schedule development, risk identification, staff acquisition, procurement planning, and so on. Planning process group is the one group revisited during various phases of the project.

Objectives
1. Define and Record Requirements, Constraints, and Assumptions
2. Identify Project Team and Define Roles and Responsibilities
3. Create the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
4. Develop Change Management Plan
5. Identify Risks and Define Risk Strategies
6. Obtain Plan Approval
7. Conduct Kick-off Meeting

Knowledge Areas & Processes

Planning process group processes covers all nine knowledge Areas.