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Unit 2: The Project Life Cycle

of the first projects, it is probable that cavemen formed a project to gather the raw material for Notes
mammoth stew. Modem project management, however, is usually said to have begun with the
Manhattan Project. In its early days, project management was used mainly for very large, complex
Research and Development (R&D) projects like the development of the Atlas Intercontinental
Ballistic Missile and similar military weapon systems. Massive construction programs were
also organized as projects the construction of dams, ships, refineries, and freeways, among others.

2.1 Concept of Project Management

Project management is a formal discipline for managing projects. Project management has been
developed over the past few decades as it has become apparent that without a structured approach,
people are not very good at completing projects successfully. The aim of project management is
to ensure that projects are completed and that the end point (the new house, computer system or
new product) is achieved. More than this, project management is about reaching that end point
predictably, which usually means to a given cost and within a planned amount of time.
The successful project management is all about structure, control, sufficient attention to detail
and continuously driving action. The role of the project manager is to understand enough
project management to apply its structure and ensure that project is successfully completed
within the time and cost required. The things you must do as a project manager are:
1. Ensure there is a clear understanding why a project is being done, and what it will produce.
2. Plan the project – to understand how long it will take and how much it will cost.
3. Manage the project – to ensure that as the project progresses, it achieves the objectives you
have defined within the time and cost specified.
4. Complete the project properly – to make sure everything produced by the project is of the
quality expected and works as required.
Project Management has emerged because the characteristics of our turn-of-the-century society
demand the development of the new methods of management. Of the many forces involved,
three are paramount:
1. The exponential expansion of the human knowledge;

2. The growing demand for a broad range of complex, sophistical, customized goods and
services;
3. The evolution of worldwide competitive markets for the production and consumption of
goods and services.
All three forces combine to mandate the use of terms to solve problems that used to be solvable
by individuals. These three forces combine to increase greatly the complexity of goods and
services produced plus the complexity of the process used to produced them and all this in turn
leads to the need for more sophisticated systems to control both outcomes and processes.
As the techniques of project management were developed, the use of project organization began
to spread. Private construction firms found that project organization was helpful on smaller
projects, such as the building of a warehouse or an apartment complex. Automotive companies
used project organization to develop new automobile models. Both General Electric and Pratt &
Whitney used project organization to develop new jet aircraft engines for airlines, as well as the
Air Force. Project management has even been used to develop new models of shoes and ships.

More recently, the use of project management by international organizations, and especially
organizations producing services rather than products, has grown rapidly. Advertising

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