Project Management

Project management is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives.What is project management?

A project is a unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits. A project is usually deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria, within an agreed timescale and budget.

A key factor that distinguishes project management from just 'management' is that it has this final deliverable and a finite timespan, unlike management which is an ongoing process. Because of this a project professional needs a wide range of skills; often technical skills, and certainly people management skills and good business awareness.

The core components of project management are:

• defining the reason why a project is necessary;
• capturing project requirements, specifying quality of the deliverables, estimating resources and timescales;
• preparing a business case to justify the investment;
• securing corporate agreement and funding;
• developing and implementing a management plan for the project;
• leading and motivating the project delivery team;managing the risks, issues and changes on the project;
• monitoring progress against plan;
• managing the project budget;
• maintaining communications with stakeholders and the project organisation;
• provider management;closing the project in a controlled fashion when appropriate.