What is PM (Project Management)?

What is PM (Project Management)?

16 Sep, 2021

Past and present decades have witnessed a growth in the use of project management as a means to achieve organisational goals and objectives.  Project management provides an effective tool to improve the organisation’s capabilities to plan, organise, implement and control its various activities including optimal utilisation of the organisation's resources and capabilities.

Management in its broader definition refers to all the activities and events that interact with each other from planning, organising, directing and controlling for the purpose of optimal utilisation of the capabilities and resources of the organisation in order to achieve the pre-determined goals and objectives efficiently and effectively and within the environment surrounding the organisation.  Thus, project management fulfills all the means, methods and concepts used in operating projects and achieving their goals.

Reasons behind the development of project management methods and practices in the army is essentially due to the fact that the army provided a series of project management skills that traditional organisations cannot provide.  The US Navy's Belarus program and that of NASA's Apollo Program are examples of applying cutting-edge practices in the management of these complex projects.

One of the reasons for the emergence of project management in the modern era since the end of the twentieth century until its date is due to the following reasons: 

1. The expansion of Human Knowledge and Scientific and Technological progress, whether in the field of information or in the field of communications.
2. The increasing demand for complex and complex goods and services, including the change in consumer tastes in their demand for these goods.
3. Globalisation and the emergence of global competition, and the globalisation of production, marketing and international business in general.
4. The emergence of giant projects that require specialisation, qualifications and appropriate scientific skills in managing such projects.

Project definition: There are several definitions of the project and they differ according to the different viewpoints of researchers and scholars in the field of Project Management and among these definitions: ·      

• A project is a temporary effort undertaken to create a unique service, good, or outcome.·      
• A project is a specific task that is intended to be accomplished.·      
• A project is an effort in which certain resources are used and money is spent to obtain expected benefits during a certain period of time.·      
• The project is an effort undertaken with the aim of achieving a specific achievement for one time and of a special nature that is not repeated in the same way. This project is usually accomplished within specific periods of time, and within the limits of the established budget.

The British Project Management Association defines the project as a set of interrelated non-routine activities, with specific beginnings and ends, to be implemented by a person or organisation to achieve specific goals within the framework of the planned cost, time and quality standards. 

Through these definitions mentioned previously, it can be concluded that there are a set of elements that must be present in the concept of the project, which are:

1. The project has interrelated and non-routine activities.
2. The project consists of interrelated activities that have specific beginnings and ends.
3. The project has a specific time period and an estimated budget in which the funds needed for this project are allocated.
4. The project has a goal that must be achieved, whether that goal is a unique good, service or product.

The project has appropriate cost, time and quality standards required by customers that must be achieved. 

In my talk about project management, it is also useful to distinguish between: 

1. The Project.
2. The Program.
3. The Mission.
4. Work Packages.
5. Work Units. 

To be continued in my next publication. 

Have a lovely week-end ahead. 

Mohamed KHALDI (piklondon.com)