What Are We Doing?

I was on a camping trip with my friends a long time ago. One of us had too much to drink, and he wasn’t doing well. It was late at night, and we couldn’t travel to a nearby town. So, we started taking care of him. One of the friends suggested checking his heart rate. We did, and then 15 minutes later, we did it again. We kept checking it, and we wrote down the numbers.

After a while, I asked about the measurements: “What’s the acceptable range? What should we do if it’s outside the range?”

The friend who had suggested checking the heart rate in the first place simply replied, “I have no idea, but I know it’s important to measure the heart rate.”

Have you had a similar experience in your projects? I think so. I have too.
Consider it a rule: don’t do anything unless you have a clear purpose for it.

PMBOK is a great resource for showing you the purpose of individual PM activities. They are all identified by their connection with other activities; that’s what we call integration. 
PMBOK is all about integration.