Project management is centered on the fundamental techniques used to organize and monitor the procedures that lead to the final product. The final product that the project management team must offer may be either tangible or intangible. The beginnings of project management can be found in the business organizations that began to see the advantages of planning and coordinating tasks as part of a single project in the early 1950s. By coordinating activities that required participation from multiple departments, they were aware of the value of communication (Boyer, & Verma, 2009). In modern business management it is considered profitable to pull together a project team in efforts of meeting particular end result needs when compared to the employment of full time project managers. This decision is based on the key premises of project management; project management can be a continuous process as it must have a defined beginning and an end. Accomplishments in project management are measured and tracked using various tools including PER charts, Gantt Charts and Work Breakdown Structures. The execution of projects tends to require ad-hoc resources in comparison to dedicated position. The primary aim of adopting project management is attempts to reduce risk thereby increasing the probability of success. The most critical factors considered in project management are time, cost and project scope and all these factors need to be considered with quality being the central theme. These implies that the project management team must ensure that the project is delivered within the specified timeline, the allocated costs, within the predefined project scope and most importantly it should meet the specified customer requirements in a quality manner.
Different books may use different steps of implementing project management that are referred to as the project management life cycle but the main usually followed in project management followed include;
Initiating
This involves the definition of the project requirements and the seeking of permission from the top management to start a project. At this stage the business information is usually communicated to the project management team, conducting of research and outlining probable risks and provide the best way forward.
Planning
Planning is usually a never ending task but most importantly focuses on the project parameters and comparing them to the predefined requirements. The meeting in this stage helps in team building to improve efficiency through suggestions from all group members
Executing
The planned events are actually performed using the event planners to ensure all activities are on track. The work breakdown schedule helps in defining the type of work to be performed in specific stages.
Controlling
Through the process of executing there must be constant and continuous monitoring and controlling of the process to ensure the results match to the expectations of the customer. This allows for the analysis of issues presented in a particular stage and ensuring that the next stages are handled without similar issues, controlling is an active stage that should be implemented through the whole project management cycle.
Closure
All projects must end and the closing of the project including the submission of project notes, scheduled event status reports and post event lessons learnt from the course of the project. The project management team meets the administrative management to deliver the end product and the management should check to ensure the end product meets all th expectations of the clients (Bowersox, & Cooper, 2002).
Project management is very beneficial in the handling of business activities that require coordination and organizing of activities. The project management can be used in marketing for promotional campaigns or rolling of new products or systems and in some cases to perform an audit.
References
Boyer, K., & Verma, R. (2009). Operations and supply chain management for the 21st century. Nelson Education.
Bowersox, D. J., Closs, D. J., & Cooper, M. B. (2002). Supply chain logistics management (Vol. 2). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
