The project manager

 You are the person that keeps it all running smoothly, hopefully! You have a lot of responsibilities as a project manager which is why it's great that you're reading this guide and pursuing your certification. There are a lot of hats to wear, and a lot to juggle but you can do it. I promise!

The following is in no way, shape, or form the entire list of things you will be doing on any given project, but it is the crux of project management. Your organizational processes and enterprise environments may impact your ability or inability to do all of these things successfully, which is why I am hopeful that some of the best practices you learn in further chapters will help you in your day-to-day project work.

Much of what your responsibilities are will be covered in the rest of the guide. For now, let's look at an overview. Get ready:

• Create a comprehensive project-management plan that will help you manage the entire project successfully. In order to do that, there are multiple knowledge areas, best practices, and tools and techniques that will need to be addressed prior to creating an integrated plan. But don't worry. By the end of the guide, you'll know what goes into it.
• Create a project baseline during planning that will allow you to track planned versus actual performance throughout the project. A typical project baseline could include a formally-approved schedule, budget, and scope of work. Some baselines will also include quality-management considerations in order to meet requirements and produce a deliverable that is fit for use.

In order to have a comprehensive project-management plan with its included project baselines, you will have to put together some formal plans. These plans can include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Human-resource management plan
• Communications management plan
• Scope management plan and the scope baseline
• Stakeholder management plan
• Schedule management plan and the schedule baseline
• Cost management plan and the cost baseline
• Risk management plan and documentation on the risks that have been identified
• Quality management plan that describes your assurance and inspection process
• Procurement management plan
• A variety of documents templates and other additional project artifacts

There are some key points to make regarding an integrated project management plan:

• The plan, once approved, can only be changed through formal change-control. This includes the management plans and baselines.
• The project management plan will include all of the necessary subsidiary plans you need for your unique project.
• Key stakeholders will need to understand your strategy for the project and give final approval on the project-management plan.
• Any changes or updates to the project management plan will need to be validated to make sure that those adjustments work the way that they're supposed to.
• It is not necessary to include every knowledge area's management plans or baselines if they are not needed for the project. That would be considered excessive documentation, and it's up to the project manager to determine what is necessary to effectively run the project.