Project Management Documentation for Engineering and Construction Projects

A  project management system consists of a set of relevant processes, tools, techniques, methodologies, resources, and procedures used to manage a project. This article presents a framework for organizing the documents associated with a project management system and suggests ways of improving these documents.

All major project stakeholders that are actively involved in the project (e.g., customer, performing organization, project manager and project team members, governmental bodies and agencies, and contractors and suppliers) will influence the preparation of project management documentation. Stakeholder requirements and documentation (policies, standards, guides, plans, and procedures) must be properly defined, analyzed, and reflected in the project management documentation. Figure 1 presents the hierarchy of stakeholder documents associated with the preparation of project management documentation.

In Figure 1, the vertical flow indicates the sequence in which documents are prepared. Earlier documents serve as the basis for later documents, but the later documents take precedence over the earlier documents. The horizontal flow indicates the input of organizational documents into the project documents. Organizational documents serve as the basis for project documents, but the project documents take precedence over the organizational documents.

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