What is Project Management?
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Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring a project to completion. 
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A Project is a defined set of activities that use resources to achieve the project goals and objectives. As it is often emphasized, a project creates a unique product or service, and is temporary —with specific start and completion dates. The main challenge in a project is to balance the traditional triple constraints of scope, time and cost also referred to as the Project Management Triangle. Because of the finite characteristic of projects, Project Management requires a distinct set of skills and a management philosophy that are far different from the ones used in repetitive processes and operations. As-a-matter-of-fact, Project Management requires "technical" skills (scheduling, cost estimating, statistical risk management, etc.) as much as “soft” skills, which encompass customer care, assertiveness, team building, presentation skills, time management, etc. As organizations recognize that projects are critical to their success, project management has become the focus of improvement efforts and is increasingly a part of strategic plans : today, project management is a discipline: It applies principles, concepts, tools and techniques to improve project performance and organizational effectiveness, that are contained in the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) which was created over twenty years ago by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and is now considered one of the most essential tools in the profession. Next: Why would you need a Project Manager? |