Project Management Plan (PMP)

A Project Management Plan (PMP) is the controlling document that defines how a project will be organized, planned, managed, monitored and delivered. The Government of Canada describes the PMP as the controlling document to manage an Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) project in its Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat project-deliverable guidance.

In Canadian defence procurement, the PMP describes the contractor's processes and activities for managing the development and implementation of the project. The contractor must then manage the project in accordance with the approved PMP and its schedule, as set out in a Department of National Defence statement of work on CanadaBuys.

How federal IM/IT guidance treats the PMP

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat guidance identifies the PMP as a required project-management deliverable for an IM/IT project. It sits alongside other planning documents, and the guidance names a separate Procurement Management Plan.

The two documents do different jobs. The PMP controls how the whole project is managed. The Procurement Management Plan documents how project needs will be met through external products or services, including the procurement strategy, the scope of what is to be procured and the responsibilities through contract closeout. The federal deliverable guidance treats them as distinct.

What a Department of National Defence solicitation requires in a PMP

A Department of National Defence solicitation for an improved galley requires the contractor to prepare and deliver a PMP in accordance with specified Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) and Data Item Description (DID) requirements. The PMP must describe the contractor's processes for organizing, staffing, controlling and directing the activities needed to fulfil the statement of work.

The same annex and appendix on CanadaBuys sets out further requirements. The contractor must:

• manage the project in accordance with the approved PMP and project schedule;
• ensure the PMP references the project's Work Breakdown Structure (WBS);
• include major tasks to at least Level 3 using the Critical Path Method;
• prepare, update and deliver the project schedule under separate CDRL and DID requirements.

PMP the plan versus PMP the credential

The acronym PMP has two common meanings. In a contract or deliverable context, it means Project Management Plan. In a qualification context, it means the Project Management Professional certification. NATO documents use the acronym in both senses, including in bidder question-and-answer material from NATO Allied Command Transformation, so a bid team should read the surrounding text before assuming which one is meant.

The plan sits within a wider set of project-management activities. NATO describes project management as covering initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing, with scope, schedule, risk, quality, resources, communications, procurement, stakeholders and integration as core areas. In defence procurements, related documents include the WBS, the project schedule, Critical Path Method information, CDRL entries and DIDs.

Approval of the PMP in defence project governance

A Canadian defence audit report refers to the development, review and approval of a PMP as part of project governance. It identifies the Project Management Board/Investment and Resources Management Committee as the body that reviews and approves key documents, including the PMP. The PMP is therefore a governed document, not a formality.

What a PMP means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Where a solicitation makes a PMP a contract deliverable, the supplier must follow the specified format, CDRL and DID requirements, approval process and delivery dates. In the Department of National Defence procurement described above, the supplier prepares and delivers the PMP, manages the project against the approved plan and schedule, and keeps the required links to the WBS, the project schedule and critical-path planning.

Bid teams should read the statement of work and its appendices for PMP requirements before pricing, since the plan commits the supplier to a way of working for the life of the contract.