Deliverables Flow (PMP) - PMBOK 5th Edition

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Change Requests (CR) flow in the PMBOK® Guide 5th edition, is one of most read articles of this blog. 

Change Request Flow (PMP) - PMBOK 5th Edition

Another flow of importance is the flow of Deliverables. As an aspiring PMP®, you need to know how the flow of deliverables happens across the Knowledge Areas and the Process Groups – in a combined way. But why it’s important? Because a project is primarily about deliverables. PMI® defines deliverables as below.

“"Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is required to be produced to complete a process, phase, or project."

This perfectly compliments the definition of a project. In fact, in the end, a project is delivered to the customer in the form of deliverables, which are accepted and signed off by the customer. 

Now, if I take all the Inputs and/or Outputs (part of ITTO - Inputs, Tools and Techniques, Outputs) to check on the flow of deliverables, it will complicate. Hence, let’s simplify.  With this simplified approach, you can easily and quickly remember. 

In the below diagram, the key processes from "Integration Management" knowledge area are shown along with one process each from “Scope Management” and "Quality Management" knowledge areas. Deliverables coming from the Executing Process Group of “Direct and Management Project Work” (or DMPW process in short) process are acting as inputs to subsequent processes. 

Overall Deliverables Flow

As shown above, various processes across process groups and knowledge areas are interacting with each other to create a product or service or result – the main purpose of a project, i.e., to create a product or service or result.

Process, Knowledge Area and Process Group Participating in CR Flow

Are you wondering, where the Project Management Plan is coming from to be acting as an input to the DMPW process? It’s the output of Develop Project Management process in Integration Management knowledge area (KA) are under planning process group (PG).

So, here are the top points for the flow of deliverables.

10 Key Points to Understand Deliverables Flow

1. “Project Management Plan” (PMP) coming from “Develop Project Management Plan” under Planning PG and Integration Management KA is fed into “Direct and Manage Project Work”.
2. “DMPW” under Executing PG and Integration Management KA takes the PMP, execution of which will create the “Deliverables”.
3. “Deliverables” are then fed into “Control Quality” process under Monitoring and Controlling (M&C) PG and Quality Management knowledge area. This creates “Validated Deliverables” as output. 
4. “Validated Deliverables” are then fed into “Validate Scope” process under M&C PG and Scope Management KA. This creates “Accepted Deliverables” as output. 
5. In the PMBOK guide, “Validated Deliverables” and “Verified Deliverables” are used interchangeably, though there are subtle differences. In verification, you ask – are you building the product right? However, in validation, you ask – are building the right product?
6. "Accepted Deliverables” are fed into “Close Project or Phase” process under Closing PG and Integration Management KA. This creates “Product or Service or Result”, which is to be transitioned. 
7. This leads back to our definition of project, which tells “A project is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product or service or result.” 
8. As you can see, inputs and outputs from various processes cutting across the process groups and the knowledge areas, are flowing seamlessly to create the final product or service or result.
9. If the project contains many phases, then also, in every phase deliverables will pass through the aforementioned processes across various process groups and knowledge areas. In such cases, they will be "interim deliverables".
10. If you are only considering a phase, then instead of final product or service or result, the output of “Close Project or Phase” process will be an "interim" product or service or result.

If you understand the above concepts, you can answer the questions related to deliverables. 

In addition, a couple of videos from the Guaranteed PMP or Your Money Back Course explains these concepts in detail. 

Video 1 - Deliverables (1m:17s)

A project is primarily about deliverables. This video tells what actually are deliverables?

Video - 2: Deliverables Flow (8m:48s)

As noted earlier in this post, the flow of deliverables is one of the significant flows to know for your PMP exam.  This video explains the flow in detail. 

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