Design teams might confuse Design Controls and Project Management because they both involve overhead control. Where Design Controls focus on the design of the project and the processes within it, Project Management involves acting as keeper of the design controls, as well as the planning behind it (i.e., Gantt Charts, budgets, relevance to company mission, etc.). You mentioned a good portion of the PM’s roles with these examples.

Now the integration can be tricky since there is a gray area between Design Controls & Project Management. For instance, the DDP is not only influenced by PMs, but all stakeholders of the project. That means that the perspectives and needs of each department will conflict with each other, making the planning of the project more difficult on the side of the PM. The same can be said about the Project Management Plan, as that also includes inputs from all involved departments for creation.

To fix this is a matter of communication. The company culture could begin by prioritizing the need for integration and shared ownership to prevent the gaps in understanding between teams and departments. This is especially important when considering silos, where putting a foot in the door of certain departments can prove difficult due to politics or cultural differences, as stated by Dr. Simon. This would be an issue primarily within Functional or Matrix organizations, not project-based ones (since staff members are each functioning under different PMs). 

Another solution is should implement sub-plans within the PMP that include the DDP itself. That way, all DDP documents will be front and center and up to date rather than having them as separate afterthoughts (as Dr. Simon put it). We could even implement a written agreement and training to ensure that all documents are living and not sporadically updated. This will minimize discrepancies between team members regarding the DDP, the documentation within it, and the PMP’s connection to how the project is supposed to be managed/guided.