The Judgment provided based upon expertise in an application area, knowledge area, discipline, industry, etc., as appropriate for the activity being performed. Such expertise may be provided by any group or person with specialized education, knowledge, skill, experience, or training.
Where applied?
Within the PMBOK® Guide, Context Diagram technique is used in the following processes:
1. DEVELOP PROJECT CHARTER
Expert judgment is defined as judgment provided based upon expertise in an application area, Knowledge Area, discipline, industry, etc., as appropriate for the activity being performed. Such expertise may be provided by any group or person with specialized education, knowledge, skill, experience, or training. For this process, expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge of or training in the following topics:
- Organizational strategy,
- Benefits management,
- Technical knowledge of the industry and focus area of the project,
- Duration and budget estimation, and
- Risk identification.
2. IDENTIFY STAKEHOLDERS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Understanding the politics and power structures in the organization,
- Knowledge of the environment and culture of the organization and other affected organizations including customers and the wider environment,
- Knowledge of the industry or type of project deliverable, and
- Knowledge of individual team member contributions and expertise.
3.DEVELOP PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Previous similar projects, and
- Information in the industry, discipline, and application area.
5. COLLECT REQUIREMENTS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Business analysis,
- Requirements elicitation,
- Requirements analysis,
- Requirements documentation,
- Project requirements in previous similar projects,
- Diagramming techniques,
- Facilitation, and
- Conflict management.
7. DEFINE SCOPE & CREATE WBS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with knowledge of or experience with similar projects.
8. PLAN SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in previous, similar projects:
- Schedule development, management, and control;
- Scheduling methodologies (e.g., predictive or adaptive life cycle);
- Scheduling software; and
- The specific industry for which the project is developed.
9. DEFINE ACTIVITIES
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge of similar past projects and the work being performed.
10. ESTIMATE ACTIVITY DURATIONS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Schedule development, management, and control;
- Expertise in estimating; and
- Discipline or application knowledge.
11. PLAN COST MANAGEMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Previous similar projects;
- Information in the industry, discipline, and application area;
- Cost estimating and budgeting; and
- Earned value management.
12. ESTIMATE COSTS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Previous similar projects;
- Information in the industry, discipline, and application area; and
- Cost estimating methods.
13. DETERMINE BUDGET
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Previous similar projects;
- Information in the industry, discipline, and application area;
- Financial principles; and
- Funding requirements and sources.
PLAN QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Quality assurance,
- Quality control,
- Quality measurements,
- Quality improvements, and
- Quality systems.
15. PLAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Negotiating for the best resources within the organization;
- Talent management and personnel development;
- Determining the preliminary effort level needed to meet project objectives;
- Determining reporting requirements based on the organizational culture;
- Estimating lead times required for the acquisition, based on lessons learned and market conditions;
- Identifying risks associated with resource acquisition, retention, and release plans;
- Complying with applicable government and union regulations; and
- Managing sellers and the logistics effort to ensure materials and supplies are available when needed.
16. ESTIMATE ACTIVITY RESOURCES
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the team and physical resource planning and estimating.
17. PLAN COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Politics and power structures in the organization;
- Environment and culture of the organization and other customer organizations;
- Organizational change management approach and practices;
- Industry or type of project deliverables;
- Organizational communications technologies;
- Organizational policies and procedures regarding the legal requirements of corporate communications;
- Organizational policies and procedures regarding security; and
- Stakeholders, including customers or sponsors.
18. PLAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Familiarity with the organization’s approach to managing risk, including enterprise risk management where this is performed;
- Tailoring risk management to the specific needs of a project; and
- Types of risks that are likely to be encountered on projects in the same area.
19. IDENTIFY RISKS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge of similar projects or business areas. Such experts should be identified by the project manager and invited to consider all aspects of individual project risks as well as sources of overall project risk, based on their previous experience and areas of expertise. The experts’ bias should be taken into account in this process.
20. PERFORM QUALITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Previous similar projects, and
- Qualitative risk analysis.
Expert judgment is often obtained through facilitated risk workshops or interviews. The possibility of expert views being biased should be taken into account in this process.
21. PERFORM QUANTITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Translating information on individual project risks and other sources of uncertainty into numeric inputs for the quantitative risk analysis model,
- Selecting the most appropriate representation of uncertainty to model particular risks or other sources of uncertainty,
- Modeling techniques that are appropriate in the context of the project,
- Identifying which tools would be most suitable for the selected modeling techniques, and
- Interpreting the outputs of quantitative risk analysis.
22. PLAN RISK RESPONSES
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge in the following topics:
- Threat response strategies,
- Opportunity response strategies,
- Contingent response strategies, and
- Overall project risk response strategies.
Expert input may be sought from individuals with particular subject matter expertise relevant to specific individual project risk, for example, where specialist technical knowledge is required.
23. PLAN PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT
should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Procurement and purchasing,
- Contract types and contract documents, and
- Regulations and compliance topics.
24. PLAN STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Politics and power structures in the organization and outside the organization,
- Environment and culture of the organization and outside the organization,
- Analytical and assessment techniques to be used for stakeholder engagement processes,
- Communication means and strategies, and
- Knowledge from previous projects of the characteristics of stakeholders and stakeholder groups and organizations involved in the current project that may have been involved in previous similar projects.
25. DIRECT AND MANAGE PROJECT WORK
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Technical knowledge on the industry and focus area of the project,
- Cost and budget management,
- Legal and procurement,
- Legislation and regulations, and
- Organizational governance.
26. MANAGE PROJECT KNOWLEDGE
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Knowledge management,
- Information management,
- Organizational learning,
- Knowledge and information management tools, and
- Relevant information from other projects.
27. IMPLEMENT RISK RESPONSES
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge to validate or modify risk responses if necessary and decide how to implement them in the most efficient and effective manner.
28. CONDUCT PROCUREMENTS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Proposal evaluation;
- Technical or subject matter;
- Relevant functional areas such as finance, engineering, design, development, supply chain management, etc.;
- Industry regulatory environment;
- Laws, regulations, and compliance requirements; and
- Negotiation.
29. MANAGE STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Politics and power structures in the organization and outside the organization;
- Environment and culture of the organization and outside the organization;
- Analytical and assessment techniques to be used for stakeholder engagement processes;
- Communication methods and strategies;
- Characteristics of stakeholders, stakeholder groups, and organizations involved in the current project that may have been involved in previous projects; and
- Requirements management, vendor management, and change management.
30. MONITOR AND CONTROL PROJECT WORK
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Earned value analysis,
- Interpretation and contextualization of data,
- Techniques to estimate duration and costs,
- Trend analysis,
- Technical knowledge on the industry and focus area of the project,
- Risk management, and
- Contract management.
31. Perform Integrated Change Control
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge of or training in the following topics:
- Technical knowledge of the industry and focus area of the project,
- Legislation and regulations,
- Legal and procurement,
- Configuration management, and
- Risk management.
32. CONTROL COSTS
Examples of expert judgment during the Control Costs process include but are not limited to:
- Variance analysis,
- Earned value analysis,
- Forecasting, and
- Financial analysis.
33. MONITOR COMMUNICATIONS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Communications with the public, the community, and the media, and, in an international environment, between virtual groups; and
- Communications and project management systems.
34. CONTROL PROCUREMENTS
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Relevant functional areas such as finance, engineering, design, development, supply chain management, etc.;
- Laws, regulations, and compliance requirements; and
- Claims administration.
35. CLOSE PROJECT OR PHASE
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:
- Management control,
- Audit,
- Legal and procurement, and
- Legislation and regulations.
