Project Management Basics
The ability to deliver projects on schedule, on budget, and aligned with business goals is key to gaining an edge in today’s highly competitive global business environment. This is where project managers come in. Project managers have an incredibly complex assignment, one that blends organizational skills, an analytical mind, and adept interpersonal abilities.
In this section, we’ll walk you through the basics of project management and what it means to be a project manager.
Before we get into project management, we need to define what exactly a “project” is. Sure, you’ve probably been assigned countless “projects” in school or on the job, but what is the actual definition?
The Project Management Institute defines a “project” as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.”
There are a few key things to notice in this definition:
· The word “temporary” means projects must have a defined beginning and end. This means every project must include a timeline, scope and resources. The fact that it is temporary with a beginning and an end also means that it is not part of ongoing operations. This brings us to the second point...
· The purpose of a project must be “to create a unique product, service, or result.” This means a project will be started in order to accomplish a specific goal that is typically outside the realm of the typical day-to-day business operation. This means, the project team might include people who don’t usually work together, and require resources that are typically outside the scope of day-to-day operations.
However, dictionary.com defines a project in somewhat looser terms: “a large or major undertaking, especially one involving considerable money, personnel, and equipment.”
Regardless, every project must have the following components:
· Goal: What are you trying to achieve?
· Timeline: When are you trying to achieve it by?
· Budget: How much will it cost to achieve?
· Stakeholders: Who are the major players who have an interest in this project?
· Project manager: Who is going to make sure everything that needs to be completed gets completed?
A project is not something routine. Day-to-day operations or maintenance is not considered a project because it does not have a definitive start and end.
Project management is the practice of applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to complete a project according to specific requirements. It comes down to identifying the problem, creating a plan to solve the problem, and then executing on that plan until the problem has been solved. That may sound simple, but there is a lot that goes into it at every stage of the process.
The roots of project management can be traced as far back as the building of the Pyramids in Giza and the Great Wall of China. However, the modern development of project management began in the 19th century when railway companies purchased tons of raw material and employed thousands of people to work on the transcontinental railroad.
By the early 20th century, Frederick Taylor applied concepts of project management to the work day, developing strategies for working smarter and improving inefficiencies, rather than demanding laborers work harder and longer. Henry Gantt, an associate of Taylor’s, took those concepts and used bars and charts to graph when certain tasks, or a series of tasks were completed, creating a new way to visualize project management.
During World War II, military and industrial leaders were employing even more detailed management strategies, eventually leading to more standardized processes like the critical path method.
These practices grew in popularity across industries, and in 1965 and 1969, the International Project Management Association and Project Management Institute were founded, respectively. In 2001, Agile project management methodologies were codified by the creation of the Agile Manifesto.
The field of project management continues to shift as an increasingly competitive landscape, the need to deliver change fast, and new technologies (automation, AI, etc...) enter the marketplace.