What is meant by project management? Discuss the need for project management. - MBA Assignment Notes

What is meant by project management? Discuss the need for project management.

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, managing, leading, and controlling resources in a project. It is an art of controlling the cost, time, manpower, and hardware and software resources involved in a project.

A project is a temporary endeavour which is often time bound and often constrained by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objective of a business.

Project Management is needed because it is useful for the following reasons:

a)    Preventing Project Failure:  

A project requires huge investments which should not go waste. A loss in any project would have direct or indirect impact on the society. Project management helps an organisation prevent failures in projects.

b)    Controlling Project Scope: 

Scope of the project activity may undergo a change. Project management helps an organisation define and control project scope.

c)    Improving understanding:  

Lack of understanding of the project among the participants leads to failure. Project management helps participants understand the project and its purpose.

d)    Managing Risks:  

A project is vulnerable to various risks. A project is affected if the technology used is changed during the course of project execution. Similarly changes in economic conditions may affect a project. Project management is very useful in assessing and mitigating such risks.

e)    Managing Project Problems: 

Consequences of ignoring project related problems can be very serious. Project management helps in identification and communication of problem areas.

f)    Provide a Process for Estimating Project Resources, Time, and Costs: 

Using project management software, previous project experiences, and a solid project initiation phase can provide the discipline needed to reduce project estimating errors, increasing the likelihood that the project will finish on time and on budget.

g)    Document, Transfer, and Apply Lessons Learned from Your Projects: 

The last phase of project management focuses on “closing out” the project.  The project manager reviews how well each prior phase — project initiation, project planning, project execution, and project monitoring and control — was performed. As part of good knowledge management, all project review notes should be dissected and analyzed for patterns, trends, and opportunities for improvement.  These “lessons learned” should be documented and communicated to other project managers before starting the next project.