Project Management Definitions
Important Project Management definitions – What do you consider as a project? The nature of project is that it is always entails working with something new or innovative. Therefore, in project management definitions, a project is basically a fairly new task or tasks with a purpose and deadlines.
A task or job that is routine, tried and true, is normally not consider as a project. It is does not need project management, because everyone knows what to expect and what steps to take to produce it.
A project need not be something very big or long term. It can be something simple like organizing an office party. It may be something that involves millions of dollars or a few dollars.
However, no matter how big or small your project is, it will still be driven by the basic project management principle, and go through the same basic project management phases. And whatever it is, the PM still must acquire and use the same basic leadership and management skills such as planning, scheduling, coordinating, communicating, team building and motivating, coaching, negotiating, selling, and delegating skills.
Of course, some projects will need specialized technical skills or knowledge. Focusing on the ‘soft’ skills does not mean that technical skills are not important. Good technical skills together with your hands-on experience will all benefit you as a Project Manager in your project management job.
There is one critical skill that all project manager must have is basic computer software knowledge because there are many project management software there that will help you to speed up your work tremendously. Because time is always not enough for all project managers so we must work smart by utilizing all these software tools.
Project Management as define by the following bodies:
PMBoK® Guide (Project Management Body of Knowledge as defined by the Project Management Institute – PMI): “Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.”
PRINCE2® project management methodology: “The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of the project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance.”
DIN 69901 (Deutsches Institut für Normung – German Organization for Standardization): “Project management is the complete set of tasks, techniques, tools applied during project execution”