People don’t like to plan because planning is not natural. It’s much more fun to be spontaneous and not think about how will go for something. A project in the planning stages is somewhat like a fairy tale, so far, it only exists in our imagination!
According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), a project is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service or result and it usually comes from a market demand, such as the demand for a new highway, an organizational need, such as the creation of a new branch, a customer request, such as the building of a house, a technological advance, like the next model of a cell phone, or a legal requirement, such as a statutory compliance.It has a defined beginning and end in time, and defined scope and resources. It is characterized by its unique purpose and temporary nature. It has a customer, a sponsor, and stakeholders, uses resources from various areas, has a budget and it involves uncertainty. However, in a broader sense, even the organization of a wedding and the baking of cake can be examples of projects.
To measure the success of a project, we need to compare the time it took, the money it cost, and the final quality of the product or service against the respective forecasted parameters of time, cost, and quality.
You may wonder how Project Management (PM) differs from operational work. They may sound similar as they are both performed by people, they are always planned, executed and controlled and they are usually constrained by limited resources. However operational work is repetitive. Therefore, PM is about planning and managing work to achieve objectives. Based on the Association for Project Management, the exact definition is 'the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific objectives according to the acceptance criteria within agreed parameters.'
If you are wondering how we can help you with your projects, please visit our Project Management section.
