INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Introduction to Project Management

Introduction to Project Management

Project management in the modern sense began in the early 1960s? although it has its roots much further back in the latter years of the 19th century. The need for project management was driven by businesses that realised the benefits of organising work around projects and the critical need to communicate and co-ordinate work across departments and professions. One of the first major uses of project management as we know it today was to manage the United States space programme. The government? military and corporate world have now adopted this practice. Here is the main definition of what project management is:

Project management is no small task.

Project management has a definite beginning and end. It is not a continuous process. (Adams? 1982)

Project management uses various tools to measure accomplishments and track project tasks. These include Work Breakdown Structures? Gantt charts and PERT charts.

Projects frequently need resources on an ad-hoc basis as opposed to organisations that have only dedicated full-time positions.

Project management reduces risk and increases the chance of success.

Project management is often summarised in a triangle. The three most important factors are time? cost and scope? commonly called the triple constraint. These form the vertices with quality as a central theme (Brooks? 1982).

Projects must be delivered on time.

Projects must be within cost.

Projects must be within scope.

Projects must meet customer quality requirements.

More recently? this has given way to a project management diamond? with time? cost? scope and quality the four vertices and customer expectations as a central theme. No two customers' expectations are the same so you must ask what their expectations are (Brooks? 1982).

A project goes through six phases during its life:

Project Definition: Defining the goals? objectives and critical success factors for the project.

Project Initiation: Everything that is needed to set-up the ...