Project Management ( Pm ) - 2739 Words

So, let s start with a general definition of project management. Very simply, project management (PM) is just another way to get things done! However, as businesses and technologies have matured, so has the science of PM, in lock-step with the nature and scope of business today - global, distributed, matrixed and virtual. It may be easy to get a single task done between a supervisor and their employee when they both sit in the same building, across the hall from each other. The supervisor asks, the employee delivers. However, the nature of work has changed. It has become global - project team members may be comprised of people on multiple continents and time zones. Work has become distributed - a single, complex task can be†¦show more content†¦How Project Manager does manages to do all that, you might ask. PM has developed into a quantifiable, defined, and measured science utilizing PM-specific principles and processes that have become accepted protocol for gettin g things done. In many cases, for some companies, the project is now the smallest unit of work - meaning that the complexity of what needs to be accomplished is such that PM is the most efficient method by which work can be done. Individuals are no longer necessarily responsible for tasks , but for a complete deliverable (which may be a result of multiple tasks, or a series of tasks which are executed in a particular and specific order). The work of project teams cross functional areas, but they are not managed by functional managers. The project deliverables often require decisions by functional managers, but the benefits may not necessarily accrue directly to the functional manager making the decision. Sound complicated? Yes...and no. Remember: project management is getting things done. Thus PM is people working together to accomplish a specific achievement with a defined set of resources, within a specific timeline. It is this relationship between SCOPE (what will be accomplished), TIME (when the accomplishment must be completed by), and RESOURCES or COST (headcount, budget, facilities, technology, administration, etc) that drives PM. This is often called the PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRIANGLE (or THE TRIPLE CONSTRAINT) --