An introduction to project management

Let’s start at the beginning: in order to define what project management is, we first need to define a project.

What is a project?

A project is a temporary endeavour that has a definite beginning and end – it is carefully planned by dividing it into several phases, including a closing phase once the objectives have been achieved. Projects create unique products or outputs.

Building a house is an example of a project: it has defined phases such as planning, hiring contractors, construction, electrical installation, plumbing and so on. There is a definite endpoint, which might be once the house sale has been finalised. The outputs are unique – the house doesn’t exist anywhere else.

What is project management?

The Association for Project Management (APM) define project management as:

… the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific project objectives according to the project acceptance criteria within agreed parameters. Project management has final deliverables that are constrained to a finite timescale and budget.

_{(Association for Project Management 2019)}

A successful project

References

_{Association for Project Management (2016) What is Project Management? [online] available from Web link [31 July 2019]}