Documentation management

Documentation management may include creating and maintaining documentation and ensuring its quality.

1. Documentation creation
   1. Project management documents
      1. Project Charter
      2. Project Plan
      3. Project Status Report
      4. Work Schedule
      5. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
      6. Gantt Chart
      7. Timesheet
      8. Communication Plan
      9. Change Management Plan
      10. Change Request Form
      11. Stakeholder Management Plan
      12. Human Resources Management Plan
      13. Cost Management Plan
      14. Risk Management Plan
      15. Project Budget
      16. Statement of Work
      17. Stage end Report
      18. Project Team meetings log
      19. Lessons Learned log
      20. Daily log
      21. Post Implementation Review
      22. Project Closing Documents

Documentation creation

Depending on the projects, organizational, legal, or structural requirements, the Business Value-Oriented Project Management (BVOPM) office may need a different set of documents.

Project management documents

A project may need different documents, reports, templates, logs, analysis, and many other extensive preparations, activities, and tools. Some of the popular traditional project management documents are:

• Project Charter
• Project Plan
• Project Status Report
• Work Schedule
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Gantt Chart
• Timesheet
• Communication Plan
• Change Management Plan
• Change Request Form
• Stakeholder Management Plan
• Human Resources Management Plan
• Cost Management Plan
• Risk Management Plan
• Project Budget
• Statement of Work
• Stage end Report
• Project Team meetings log
• Lessons Learned log
• Daily log
• Post Implementation Review
• Project Closing documents

Project Charter

In general, this is an outline of the scope, objectives, business needs, high-level budget, high-level risk, and participants in a project. This document outlines in advance the roles, responsibilities, and objectives of the projects. It also identifies key stakeholders and defines the authority of the project manager.

Project Plan

The project plan presents planning assumptions and decisions, facilitates communication between project stakeholders, documents approved scopes, costs, and schedules.

Usual topics in the project plan may include management of:

• Scope
• Requirements
• Schedule
• Finances
• Quality
• Resources
• Stakeholders
• Communications
• Project changes
• Risk
• Procurement

Project Status Report

It is usually used to regularly update the project team, sponsors, stakeholders, and customers on the current status of the project. It may contain general information, costs, finished and unfinished tasks, issues, resolutions, risk, further plans, etc.

Work Schedule

It may present standard workdays, holidays, non-standard working times, tasks, and assigned resources.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Hierarchical decomposition of the entire project into small components, tasks, goals, phases, and deliverables. It is usually a tree structure that shows a subdivision of the effort needed to reach a goal. The WBS is a useful tool for visualizing the needed work and may facilitate budget, time, and resources planning.

Gantt Chart

It is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule and shows the dependency between activities. The Gantt Chart presents the tasks of the project on a vertical axis, and the time required to perform each task is visualized on a horizontal axis.

Timesheet

Usually contains the amount of a worker's time spent on each task.

Communication Plan

May contain information about communication channels, participants in planned communication, common topics for discussion, and frequency of events conduction. It may be a part of the general project plan.

Change Management Plan

Lists activities or roles that will require additional focus during the implementation and control phase of a project. It may contain plans for a change of any kind, procedures for responding, and integrating change.

Change Request Form

May contain the desired changes in the current scope, process, product, and the involved in the change roles, resources, needs, risks, etc. This form can be filled by external parties, internal teams or project management roles and delivered to others for approval, review, or planning.

Stakeholder Management Plan

Describes how stakeholders will be involved in the project. It may include their needs, concerns, limitations, the ability to influence the project, contact information, role, and other specific information. It usually contains only stakeholders with a high interest in the project.

Human Resources Management Plan

The Human Resource Management Plan usually sets out how human resources for the project should be defined, controlled, and managed.

Cost Management Plan

The cost management plan is an outline of the project estimation, allocation, and control of the costs of the required resources, so all project activities are eventually implemented.

Risk Management Plan

Possible risks, causes, and consequences may be included in this plan. Various responses to different risks are usually pre-defined.

Potential responses to risk may be:

Avoiding – The management and teams change plans to avoid a problem.

Mitigate – The management and teams try to reduce threat impact.

Accept – Accepting the negative impact.

Transfer – Outsource risk to third parties that can manage it.

Project Budget

It may include a breakdown of all project costs, potential future costs, eligible costs, etc.

Statement of Work

Statement of work is a document that may present legal relationships and may serve as a contract between a client and a service provider. It may contain a scope of work, a period of providing a service, deliverables schedule, applicable standards, acceptance criteria, etc.

Stage end Report

It contains information about the progress of the project up to a date and topics requiring discussion or approval, as well as recommendations for the next steps that may also need approval. It may also include a review of the business case, achieved benefits, expected future benefits, deviations from plans and agreements, review of team performance, etc.

Project Team meetings log

Key points of team meetings, decisions, and topics may be documented for future reference.

Lessons Learned log

In the course of the project work, teams usually learn important information that can be documented and used for future projects.

Daily log

It is usually an informal document containing significant events, problems, decisions, and other topics from the current day.

Post Implementation Review

Describes the status of the project and whether the objectives have been achieved. It is usually created in the final phases of the project and may include feedback from independent parties.

Project Closing Documents

Collection of documents or a single document containing a list of points that should have been executed. The project sponsor, project manager, quality manager, and other roles can participate in completing and signing the document.

---

The BVOP recommends a careful approach to the creation and maintenance of documentation of all kinds, as these can be heavy and time-consuming processes that can cause waste. The BVOPM office defines which documents need to be maintained and their exact use, formalities, and details.

Creating and maintaining customized documentation may be a flexible and advisable approach to documentation management. Adherence to classic and traditional documents can bring both advantages and disadvantages. The BVOP suggests that creating and maintaining a large collection of documents may cause waste if they are not used or do not add any business value to the project. Their content needs to be clear and short enough and at the same time cover important topics. They have to be understandable by everyone that may require, read, maintain, and use them.

The following issues related to chapter "Documentation management" are included in the certification exam. The sequence of questions is presented in the table.
The data is current as of September 25, 2024, 5:51 pm

ID	Issue	Time	Category
0	Project Status Report	60 sec	PM, PDM
1	Stakeholder Management Plan	60 sec	PM, PDM
2	Project Charter	60 sec	PM, PDM
3	Change Management Plan	60 sec	PM, PDM
4	Gantt Chart	60 sec	PM, PDM
5	Risk Management Plan	60 sec	PM, PDM
6	Cost Management Plan	60 sec	PM, PDM
7	Timesheet	60 sec	PM, PDM
8	Post Implementation Review	60 sec	PM, PDM
9	Communication Plan	60 sec	PM, PDM
10	Project Team meetings log	60 sec	PM, PDM
11	Daily log	60 sec	PM, PDM
12	Work Schedule	60 sec	PM, PDM
13	Change Request Form	60 sec	PM, PDM
14	Project Closing Documents	60 sec	PM, PDM
15	Human Resources Management Plan	60 sec	PM, PDM
16	Project Budget	60 sec	PM, PDM
17	Statement of Work	60 sec	PM, PDM
18	Project Plan	60 sec	PM, PDM
19	Project management documents	60 sec	PM, PDM
20	Lessons Learned log	60 sec	PM, PDM
21	Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)	60 sec	PM, PDM
22	Stage end Report	60 sec	PM, PDM

Comments from the BVOP™ community on “Documentation management”

Summary

Manage documentation: create, maintain, and ensure quality. Includes project docs like charter, plan, status report, schedule, WBS, Gantt chart, timesheet, communication plan, change management plan, stakeholder management plan, HR management plan, cost management plan, risk management plan, budget, SOW, stage end report, team meetings log, lessons learned log, daily log, post-implementation review, and closing docs.

BVOPM may require different documents based on project needs. Popular project management documents include Project Charter, Plan, Status Report, Schedule, Gantt Chart, and Risk Management Plan. Other necessary documents include Communication and Change Management Plans, Stakeholder and Human Resources Management Plans, Cost Management Plan, Statement of Work, and Project Budget. Post-project documents include Lessons Learned and Project Closing documents.

This is an overview of the different documents used in project management. The Project Charter outlines the scope, objectives, budget, and risks of a project. The Project Plan documents the scope, costs, and schedules of a project. The Project Status Report provides regular updates on the project's progress. 

The Work Schedule outlines tasks and resources needed. The Work Breakdown Structure breaks down the project into smaller components. The Gantt Chart shows the project schedule and dependencies. The Communication Plan outlines communication channels and topics. 

The Change Management Plan lists activities for responding to changes. The Stakeholder Management Plan describes how stakeholders will be involved. The Human Resources Management Plan outlines how human resources will be managed. The Cost Management Plan outlines cost estimation and control. 

The Risk Management Plan identifies possible risks and responses. The Statement of Work serves as a contract between the client and the service provider. The Stage End Report provides information on project progress and recommendations for the next steps. The Project Team Meetings Log documents key points from meetings. 

The Lessons Learned Log documents important information for future projects. The Daily Log documents significant events, problems, and decisions from each day. 

The Post Implementation Review evaluates whether project objectives were achieved.