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Project Integration Management includes the processes required to ensure that the various elements of the project are properly coordinated. It involves making tradeoffs among competing objectives and alternatives in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations. While all project management processes are integrative to some extent, the processes described in this chapter are primarily integrative. Figure 4-1 provides an overview of the following major processes:

	Project Plan Development — integrating and coordeinating all project plans to create a consistent, coherent document.
	Project Plan Execution — carrying out the project plan by performing the activities included therein.
	Integrated Change Control — coordinating changes across the entire project.

  These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more individ-uals or groups of individuals based on the needs of the project. Each process general-ly occurs at least once in every project phase.
  Although the processes are presented here as discrete elements with well-defined interfaces, in practice they may overlap and interact in ways not detailed here. Process interactions are discussed in detail in Chapter 3, Project Management Processes.
  The processes, tools, and techniques used to integrate project management processes are the focus of this chapter. For example, project integration management comes into play when a cost estimate is needed for a contingency plan or when risks associated with various staffing alternatives must be identified. However, for a project to be completed successfully, integration must also occur in a number of other areas as well. For example:

   The work of the project must be integrated with the ongoing operations of the performing organization.

   Product scope and project scope must be integrated (the difference between product and project scope is discussed in the introduction to Chapter 5).

  One of the techniques used to both integrate the various processes and to measure the performance of the project as it moves from initiation through to completion is Earned Value Management (EVM). EVM will be discussed in this chapter as a project integrating methodology, while earned value (EV), the technique, will be discussed in other chapter as a tool to measure performance against the project plan.
  Project management software is a tool that aids integration within a project. And it may span all project management processes.