Project management is 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.
Historically, the definition of success has been meeting the customer’s expectations regardless of whether or not the customer is internal or external. Success also includes getting the job done within the constraints of time, cost,…
Companies today are managing projects more informally than before. Informal project management does have some degree of formality but emphasizes managing the project with a minimum amount of paperwork. Furthermore, informal project management is based…
Some people contend that maturity and excellence in project management are the same.Unfortunately, this is not the case. Consider the following definition:Maturity in project management is the implementation of a standard methodology and accompanying processes…
In the preceding sections the word “systems” has been used rather loosely. The exact definition of a system depends on the users, environment, and ultimate goal. Business practitioners define a system as:A group of elements,…
Why was project management so difficult for companies to accept and implement? The answer is shown in Figure 2–7. Historically, project management resided only in the project driven sectors of the marketplace. In these sectors,…
By the 1990s, companies had begun to realize that implementing project management was a necessity, not a choice. The question was not how to implement project management, but how fast could it be done? Table…
The growth of project management has come about more through necessity than through desire. Its slow growth can be attributed mainly to lack of acceptance of the new management techniques necessary for its successful implementation.…
During the 1940s, line managers used the concept of over-the-fence management to manage projects. Each line manager, wearing the hat of a project manager, would perform the work necessitated by their line organization, and when…
INTRODUCTION The growth and acceptance of project management has changed significantly over the past forty years, and these changes are expected to continue well into the twenty-first century, especially in the area of multinational project…
For 75 years, the Williams Machine Tool Company had provided quality products to its clients, becoming the third largest U.S.-based machine tool company by 1980. The company was highly profitable and had an extremely low…