What is Project Management?

“Project management is the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives.”

Deliverables:
Deliverables are outputs. Deliverables are measurable outputs and can take such forms as:
 Hardware Deliverables: These are hardware items, such as a table, a prototype, or a piece of equipment.
 Software Deliverables: These items are similar to hardware deliverables but usually paper products, such as reports, studies, handouts, or documentations.
 Interim Deliverables: These items can be either hardware or software deliverables. An example might be a series of interim reports leading up to the final report.

Project Manager’s role:
 Responsible for coordinating and integrating activities across functional lines to:
 Develop a project plan
 Execute the plan, and
 Make changes to the plan
 Understand operations of line organizations

Successful Project Manager:
A successful project manager is someone who has:
 Strong communication skills
 Strong interpersonal skills
 Ability to
 balance technical and managerial functions;
 overcome organizational constraints;
 cope with and survive risks
An executive with a computer manufacturer stated that his company was looking externally for project managers. When asked if he expected candidates to have a command of computer technology, the executive remarked: “You give me an individual who has good communicative skills and interpersonal skills, and I’ll give that individual a job. I can teach people the technology and give them technical experts to assist them in decision making. But I cannot teach somebody how to work with people.”

Project Success:
 Successful project management can then be defined as having achieved the project objectives:
 Within time
 Within cost
 At the desired performance/technology level
 While utilizing the assigned resources effectively and efficiently
 Accepted by the customer
 “Success equals met expectations!”

The Many Faces of Failure:
 Failure is when the final results are not what were expected.
 For simplicity’s sake, let us define failure as unmet expectations