Summary

The most important lesson from projects is that success requires teamwork. Successful projects require everyone on the team to pull together, and everyone on the team to contribute. A project is a named set of activities that need to follow specific steps to be completed within a specific amount of time. For example, a project might be to develop a new design for a widget, or to launch a product, or to meet a payroll. By breaking these tasks down into smaller tasks, and breaking them down further into smaller tasks, you can assign specific tasks to people. These individuals then have to complete those tasks and pass the results up the line for approval, and so on.

A project manager is the person who is in charge. The project manager is responsible for the overall plan, for making sure everyone is following it, and for keeping everyone informed about progress. Sometimes people call this person a "project manager." But more often, the project manager is the person who manages people.

A project plan is created by identifying the activities needed to complete the project, and identifying who is responsible for each one. The plan should be written in a step-by-step fashion, with key dates, milestones, and deliverables. After the project plan is created, and before work begins, the project manager needs to evaluate the project.

Ask the right questions in project management

This is usually done using a simple project evaluation checklist, which lists questions such as the following:

* What are the goals?

* What problem does the project solve?

* Who will be affected by the project?

* What resources will the project use?

* How will the project be implemented?

* How will the project be tracked?

* What are the costs?

* How will the project be assessed?

* How much work has been done so far?

* When will the project manager have a detailed progress report?

* When will the project be finished?

* Who will evaluate the project?

What does a project manager need?

To understand the scope and get all the above questions right, project managers use PMS tools for business.  Project managers use software to manage projects. Software is all the clever stuff we do to make computers do things. Most software does one thing well. Software for project management doesn't do project management; it manages schedules and budgets.

Once upon a time, software was very much like hardware. You bought a computer and it came with an operating system. You bought more software. But software has advantages over hardware. Software can be copied. You can carry software with you. Software is a much more flexible tool. Yet because software does so many useful things, it is hard to keep track of all the variations in software that people use.

Fortunately, software companies don't usually want you to use their software. They use software only because it is convenient for them. The software companies have programmers who write software, and they sell that software to the people who can use it.

The people who use the software have managers, who handle their use of the software. Software companies are not in the business of managing projects. The managers of software companies sell the software; they don't manage projects. Managers of software companies sell licenses. The managers of software companies make money only if they convince the users to buy more licenses.

Project management is not product management

Project management is a set of processes, methods, and techniques used to plan, organize, manage, and control resources and time to achieve specific objectives within defined constraints, often in the context of a workplace. Modern Project management is distinct from traditional project management in that the former focuses on project management as a discipline, the latter on project management as a technique or strategy. Project management is focused on the management of a single project or set of related projects.

Project management differs from product development in that the former is the management of a specific deliverable, whereas the latter is the management of a specific product. Project management differs from program management in that the former focuses on the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control of specific projects, whereas the latter focuses on the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control of an entire program.

Project management Scenarios

The first major project I worked on was for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Our original idea was to build a computer version of the company's telephone directories, so that customers could look up their own names. It was always a very gradual process. First, we recruited a few dozen people, each assigned to research one aspect of the problem, then another, and another: hardware, operating systems, software, networking, and so on. Over time, we figured out what computers could do, and what the weaknesses were in what we had. Finally, we built the first working prototype, but it was too late. The technology was already obsolete.

Since then, it has always seemed like the joke was on project management. Projects were always huge, always far over budget, and often completely unworkable. How could that be? How could one group of people think they could build a software system, another group figure out how to make hardware, and a third group figure out how to transmit the data? How could these different groups ever agree? And yet, somehow, they always did.

There was a reason. The project manager wasn't in charge. The project wasn't organized as a series of little subsystems, each with its own set of contractors and bosses. Instead, we organized the project as one big system, with each component built using whatever technology was at hand. Thus, for example, the networking group designed its own operating system, and the software group created its own programming language. This idea was radical. It had never occurred to anyone before. But it worked. That project, like every successful one, had something in common: it used project management the way it should have been used, not as a collection of separate processes, but as a system.

What do modern project managers do?

Project management is the art and science of managing projects. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Projects are generally undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives that are often set by top management. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Project management is the art and science of managing complex projects. A complex project has many interdependent components and uncertain requirements.

Project managers organize, plan, direct, control and motivate people engaged in producing something. Project management is the practice of coordinating people, activities and resources to achieve specific goals and objectives.  Project management process. Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.

Project management can be broadly defined as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. Project management uses three basic disciplines: A project management methodology (a body of theory that describes and prescribes how projects are performed). A project management methodology (a body of theory that describes and prescribes how projects are performed). Project management standards and tools (a body of standards, guidelines, and recommended practices). PMS tools (systems and software).