Project Management

Executive summary

Project Management

Project management is a process focused on the creation and successful delivery of a unique product, service, or result. Portfolio, Program and Project management are aligned with the strategic objectives of an organization. Every professional discipline utilizes project management to some measurable degree to accomplish an end goal, objective or deliverable. The concept of Project management is not a new discipline to business; the ancient Egyptians implemented vast projects to build the great pyramids, the Chinese built the Great Wall of China, and the American industrial age was rooted in the successful completion of millions of magnificent projects that became known as the modern marvels of the world.

Organizations charter projects due to a market demand, business need/strategic opportunity, social need, customer request, environmental consideration, technology advancement or legal requirement. All types of organizations are involved in the business of project, program, and portfolio management to effectively utilize organizational resources to drive business results. In the non-profit world, many nongovernmental organizations will authorized projects to help to develop more sanitize conditions, water and power systems, healthcare systems, and agriculture production in developing countries. For example, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) the Red Cross, and Doctors without Borders uses project management for these types of purposes.

In the United States each year, business utilize project management to bring new products, and services to market that have been pre-planned as part of the organizations strategic objectives. Businesses follow a careful studied road-map, and introduces products and services, at the right time after considerable investigation and market research to ensure acceptance and to improve everyday life. Pharmaceutical and medical research companies and government agencies like the National Institute of Health are constantly developing new drugs for the prevention and cure of diseases like cancer, Ebola and HIV. Technology and manufacturing companies like Intel, Apple, Samsung, IBM, Dell, Cisco and their contemporaries are using project and product management to accelerate data processing and increase the delivery communication technology at nano second speeds. Automobile companies like Ford, Chevrolet, Buick, and General Motors utilizes product management to build safer, faster, reliable and more environmental efficient vehicles. Ship, submarine, aerospace, and construction companies use project management to expand industrial commerce and trade in the United States and world. Project Management is a science and an art, from the food that we eat, to the clothes that we wear, to all of the goods and services that we consume on a daily basis are all outputs of project management processes because someone had to devise a brilliant and unique idea and bring to fruition utilizing time proven tools and techniques that are in the state of continuous improvement.

In the 1940s, the United States Government through the Defense Department implemented one of its greatest projects in human existence to halt the World War II with Japan, known as the Manhattan project that created the nuclear bomb. In the 1960s, the United States Government implemented its second greatest project by chartering the Apollo space project that enable a man to land on the moon. In the early 1950s, IBM Corporation develop the mainframe computer as a project. In the mid-1970s, Apple computer developed the first personal computer that was expanded by IBM Corporation in the 1980s. Microsoft Corporation, Oracle, and WordPerfect use project management processes to develop software for the micro-computer. Whenever we think of our world and businesses, we must always be reminded and appreciative of the fact that projects and project management are the vehicles that drive business results in every discipline. Whether it is the accountant department devising a new payroll system, or the engineering department developing a new product or service, or marketing engagement of niche stakeholders, they all have to follow a process of doing some type of work or end