Project management has been recognised as a discipline for some 50 years although its practice (often informal) can be traced back to ventures such as the building of the Pyramids by the ancient Pharos. Many organizations still view Project management as being rooted in industries such as Petro chemical or construction. Building a new office block is obviously a project and people can readily appreciate how the design has to be applied to meet the requirements of the office workers whilst the construction has to be managed to ensure it meets the design. Taking this concept and applying it to the launch of a new financial services product can be difficult.
As an example consider an organization that wants to upgrade its computer servers to MS Windows Server 2008. Many people would see the 'project' as checking to make sure the computer hardware was suitable to take the upgrade and then managing the migration of all relevant files etc An important point to consider concerns the impact on people's working behavior both during and after the upgrade. What training and support will be required?, who will provide this support?, what is the impact on 'external suppliers etc? Projects can have a habit of growing in their scope because the impact of what was being undertaken was not thought through at the outset.
The core principle of Project management is to plan what needs to be done and then implement the plan taking cognizance of changing circumstances. There are a wide range of tools and techniques within Project management to facilitate this process many of which come from wider management principles.
More information is available from a number of areas.
| APM | The UK based Association for Project Management (APM). This is a professional association for project management. It produces a range of publications including a 'Body of Knowledge in Project management'. |
| PMI | The USA based Project Management Institute (PMI). This is a professional association for project management. It produces a range of publications including a 'Project management Body of Knowledge'. |
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