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Project Management

Notes Introduction

A project is a group of unique, interrelated activities that are planned and executed in a certain
sequence to create a unique product or service, within a specific time frame, budget and the
client’s specifications. Some of the characteristics of the tasks that qualify to be a project are:
uniqueness, specificity of goal, sequence of activities, specified time and interrelatedness. Projects
are carried out under many resource constraints and their success depends on the ability of the
manager to manage these constraints effectively. Project management is the application of the
knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder
needs and expectations.
Every project has a set of activities that are unique, which means it is the first time that an
organization handles that type of activity. These activities do not repeat in the project under
similar circumstances i.e., there will be something different in every activity or even if the
activity is repeated, the variables influencing it change every time.

1.1 Definition of Project Management

Project management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources in such a way that
these resources deliver all the work required to complete a project within defined scope, time,
and cost constraints. A project is a temporary and one time endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product or service. This property of being a temporary and one time undertaking contrasts
with processes, or operations, which are permanent or semi-permanent ongoing functional
work to create the same product or service over-and-over again. The management of these two
systems is often very different and requires varying technical skills and philosophy, hence
requiring the development of project management first challenge of project management is
ensuring that a project is delivered within the defined constraints. The second, more ambitious,
challenge is the optimized allocation and integration of the inputs needed to meet those
predefined objectives. The project, therefore, is a carefully selected set of activities chosen to use
resources to meet the predefined objectives.
As a discipline, Project Management developed from several different fields of application,
including construction, mechanical engineering, military projects, etc. In the United States, the
forefather of project management is Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control
techniques, who is famously known for his use of the “bar” chart as a project management tool,
for being an associate of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theories of scientific management, and for
his study of the work and management of Navy ship building. His work is the forerunner to
many modern project management tools, including the work breakdown structure and resource
allocation. The 1950’s mark the beginning of the modern project management era. Again, in the
United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt
Charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two mathematical project scheduling
models were developed:
1. The “Program Evaluation and Review Technique” or PERT, developed as part of the
United States Navy’s Polaris missile submarine program; and
2. The “Critical Path Method” (CPM) developed in a joint venture by both DuPont
Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects.
In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed to serve the interest of the project
management industry. The premise of PMI is that the tools and techniques of project management
are common even among the widespread application of projects from the software industry to
the construction industry. In 1981, the PMI Board of Directors authorized the development of
what has become the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, containing the
standards and guidelines of practice that are widely used throughout the profession.

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