Part 61: Data Gathering
(Project Integration Management: Develop Project Charter)
(Project Integration Management: Develop Project Management Plan)
(Project Scope Management: Collect Requirements)
(Project Quality Management: Plan Quality Management)
(Project Quality Management: Manage Quality)
(Project Quality Management: Control Quality)
(Project Risk Management: Identify Risks)
(Project Risk Management: Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis)
(Project Risk Management: Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis)
(Project Risk Management: Plan Risk Responses)
(Project Procurement Management: Plan Procurement Management)
(Project Stakeholder Management: Identify Stakeholders)
(Project Stakeholder Management: Plan Stakeholder Engagement)

  • How do we gather data?
    • Benchmarking
      • Compare our products/practices to those of similar organizations
      • This allows us to measure our performance and look for opportunities to improve
    • Brainstorming
      • Gather a group of people, including stakeholders, experts, and team members
      • Each group member contributes as many ideas as possible (no right or wrong answers here)
      • The ideas are discussed and ranked; feasible ideas go to the next step
    • Brain Writing
      • Similar to brainstorming
      • Participants are given time alone to consider their responses, then they are placed into a group to brainstorm
    • Checklists
      • An organization may have pre-defined checklists
      • There are also industry checklists
      • A Project Manager uses a checklist to ensure that he hasn’t missed anything when developing the Project Management Plan
    • Check Sheet
      • Also known as a tally sheet
      • We use these to collect numerical data when performing quality inspections (such as number and type of defects)
    • Focus Groups
      • Bring stakeholders and experts together to learn about the project, its risks, and success criteria
      • The focus group holds a conversation
      • There is usually a moderator who guides the focus group
    • Interview
      • We meet with people one-on-one (although we could have multiple interviewers and interviewees) and ask them prepared questions
      • This allows us to identify their requirements, assumptions, and approval criteria
      • This is the best process for obtaining confidential information
    • Questionnaires and Surveys
      • Written sets of questions
      • Best for obtaining information from many people, where the respondents are geographically disperse, and/or where statistical analysis is required
    • Statistical Sampling
      • Choose a population of interest