In the project management context, integration includes characteristics of unification, consolidation, articulation, and integrative actions that are crucial to project completion, successfully meeting customer and other stakeholder requirements, and managing expectations. Integration, in the context of managing a project, is making choices about where to concentrate resources and effort on any given day, anticipating potential issues, dealing with these issues before they become critical, and coordinating work for the overall project good. The integration effort also involves making trade\u2010offs amon

The need for integration in project management becomes evident in situations where individual processes interact. For example, a cost estimate needed for a contingency plan involves integration of the planning processes described in greater detail in the Project Cost Management processes, Project Time Management processes, and Project Risk Management processes. When additional risks associated with various staffing alternatives are identified, then one or more of those processes must be revisited. The project deliverables also need to be integrated with ongoing operations of either the performing organization or the customer\u2019s organization, or with the long\u2010term strategic planning that takes future problems and opportunities into consideration.

Most experienced project management practitioners know there is no single way to manage a project. They apply project management knowledge, skills, and processes in different orders and degrees of rigor to achieve the desired project performance. However, the perception that a particular process is not required does not mean that it should not be addressed. The project manager and project team must address every process, and the level of implementation for each process must be determined for each specific project.

The integrative nature of projects and project management can be better understood if we think of the other activities performed while completing a project. For example, some activities performed by the project management team could be to:

management plan, the planned set of integrated processes, and the planned scope.
\u2022 Measure and monitor project status, processes and products.
\u2022 Analyze project risks.A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge Third Edition

Integration is primarily concerned with effectively integrating the processes among the Project Management Process Groups that are required to accomplish project objectives within an organization\u2019s defined procedures. Figure 4\u20101 provides an overview of the major project management integrative processes. Figure 4\u20102 provides a process flow diagram of those processes and their inputs, outputs and other related Knowledge Area processes.

The project charter is the document that formally authorizes a project. The project charter provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. A project manager is identified and assigned as early in the project as is feasible. The project manager should alwa

developed. A project initiator or sponsor external to the project organization, at a level 4 that is appropriate to funding the project, issues the project charter. Projects are usually chartered and authorized external to the project organization by an enterprise, a government agency, a company, a program organization, or a portfolio organization, as a result of one or more of the following:

\u2022 A market demand
\u2022 A business
\u2022 A customer request
\u2022 A technological advance

These stimuli can also be called problems, opportunities, or business requirements. The central theme of all these stimuli is that management must make a decision about how to respond and what projects to authorize and charter.