Definitions: Project Management

Definition

Project management involves managing the process of directing a team or group to complete a specific goal or project. Project management requires identifying the objectives, creating a plan, and managing all resources to meet or exceed the goals of the project within the constraints of time, budget, and scope.

The discipline of project management harkens back to the late 1800s to early 1900s when Frederick Winslow Taylor identified his theories of scientific management. Followers of those theories, Henry Gantt and Henri Fayol, are also accredited with furthering project management with their own contributions. Gantt developed the Gantt chart; Fayol created his five management functions, which are the embodiment of the project and program management theories.

Business applications

Any business could use project management practices to complete large projects and goals. Though most project management jobs are found in such fields as engineering, construction, information technology, and defense, where large-scale projects take months or years to complete and require detailed organization and scheduling to meet strict deadlines.

Technical details

Within project management, there are several methodologies for managing projects, including: Adaptive Project Framework, Extreme Programming, TenStep, Rational Unified Process, Systems Development Life Cycle, and PRINCE2.

Within these methodologies, most projects will have similar stages: initiation, planning and development, production, monitoring and control, and closing.

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