Project management is the discipline[1] of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is often closely related to and sometimes conflated with program management.
A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by date, but can be by funding or deliverables[2]), undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives[3], usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to business as usual (or operations)[4], which are repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management.
The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals[5] and objectives while honoring the preconceived project constraints.[6] Typical constraints are scope, time and budget.[2] The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.
There have been several attempts to develop Project Management standards, such as:
- Capability Maturity Model from the Software Engineering Institute.
- GAPPS, Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards- an open source standard describing COMPETENCIES for project and program managers.[19]
- A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
- HERMES method, Swiss general project management method, selected for use in Luxembourg and international organisations.
- The ISO standards ISO 9000, a family of standards for quality management systems, and the ISO 10006:2003, for Quality management systems and guidelines for quality management in projects.
- PRINCE2, PRojects IN Controlled Environments.
- Team Software Process (TSP) from the Software Engineering Institute.
- Total Cost Management Framework, AACE International's Methodology for Integrated Portfolio, Program and Project Management)
- V-Modell, an original systems development method.
