What Is Project Integration Management? Complete Guide

Project integration management is a set of processes that you can apply to unify complex projects and cross-functional stakeholders and improve project collaboration and outputs.

In this article, I’ll review the steps involved in project integration management and how you can implement it on your projects.

What Is Project Integration Management?

Project integration management is a fancy term for the orchestration of the various elements of a project to make sure project processes are running smoothly.

As a project manager, integration management is truly your time to shine. As part of project integration management, you’ll corral project resources and key stakeholders to execute tasks efficiently and produce high-quality deliverables in service of project goals.

Why Is Project Integration Management Important?

Project integration management is important because it helps keep complex projects on track. When you’re working across different departments to complete tasks in line with the project schedule and stated budget, you’ll need to make tradeoffs across competing priorities.

For example, if team members are running late in completing a project deliverable, you’ll need to decide whether to cut scope to complete the project on time or to accept the delay and incur additional costs.

Project integration management identifies these types of conflicts in advance to support effective decision making and help you meet stakeholder expectations.

Project Integration Management Process

Project integration management is one of the knowledge areas identified in the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK.) It consists of the following processes:

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1. Create a Project Charter

During project initiation, the project sponsor is responsible for drafting the project charter, a formal document summarizing project objectives, project scope, and the roles and responsibilities of project team members.

Documenting the goals for the project, what is in and out of scope, and who is doing what reduces the risk of scope creep.

2. Create a Project Plan

If the project charter describes the “what” and “why” you’re doing a project, the project plan explains “how” you will achieve project goals.

The project management plan describes how you will manage the various aspects of a project, including scope management, risk management, cost management, resource management, the schedule, and communications throughout the project life cycle.

3. Direct & Manage Tasks

During the project execution phase, you’ll oversee the completion of project activities and report on project status.

4. Manage Project Knowledge

Part of your task as a project manager is to develop project documents that summarize project planning and any lessons learned as part of project execution. Your organization can then use this data to improve the delivery of future projects.

5. Monitor & Control Tasks

In the monitoring and controlling phase of the project life cycle, you assess project progress and take any necessary corrective actions to keep the project on track.

6. Use Integrated Change Control

To effectively control project work, you’ll need a process for managing requested adjustments to project scope. Otherwise, you’ll find it difficult to meet project goals and adhere to established milestones.

Implementing a change control process allows you to review and adjudicate incoming change requests to maximize the chances of project success.

7. Close the Project

Once you’ve completed project activities for the entire project, it’s time to prepare for project closure. In this phase, you’ll review project metrics and document lessons learned to apply to future projects.

How to Implement Project Integration Management

Here are some best practices for implementing project integration management:

• Identify the right stakeholders: You need the right players involved to complete project activities and to pinpoint dependencies with other groups. Failing to account for dependencies can slow down project implementation while you wait for another team to finish up a task before you can move onto the next.
• Define communication protocols: Once you’ve got the right folks identified, work with the team to draft an agreement that specifies ways of working, including how communications will take place on the project. Delineating when to use email vs. instant messaging may seem like a small thing, but codifying it takes the guesswork out of project execution, which helps to save time and reduce confusion.
• Track time spent on project activities: Asking team members to log their time spent helps you make sure work is on time and on budget. Plus, the team can use this data to inform cost estimates for future projects.

Tools for Project Integration Management

Consider project management software as a useful tool to support project integration management workflows, particularly for monitoring and controlling project work. 

For example, you can use software to manage project work, track real-time resource allocation, produce project status reports, and store project documentation.

Check out our list of the best project management software here:

1. 1. monday.com — Best for workflow automation
2. 2. Productive — Best for agency projects and budgeting
3. 3. Wrike — Best for large projects and scaling
4. 4. ClickUp — Best for replacing multiple separate tools
5. 5. Celoxis — Best for simplified planning and workflows
6. 6. Hive — Best for collaborative project management
7. 7. Hub Planner — Best for resource scheduling
8. 8. Zoho Projects — Best for integration with Zoho Suite
9. 9. Bonsai Agency Software — Best for end-to-end agency projects
10. 10. Quickbase — Best for process automation

Common Challenges With Project Integration Management

Here are some common project integration management challenges you may encounter and how to overcome them:

• Difficulty in aligning on project scope: Cross-functional stakeholders may have differing opinions about what should be included in the project scope. Use project charter development as an opportunity to define project goals and the business case and align scope with those goals. You should not begin project execution until the team is aligned and accountable for stated project goals.
• Lack of visibility into ongoing project activities: Standardize team communication protocols and project reporting to provide a unified view of ongoing project work
• High volume of change requests threatens to derail your project: Maintain a strict change control process to vet incoming requests
• Lack of commitment to project documentation: Hold team members accountable for documenting their work. Hold project retrospectives at key phases to collect and document lessons learned.

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