Project Management Time-tested Practice

Managing a business or department by project isn’t a new concept, but the strategies and software that accompany this tack are ever-evolving.

Minneapolis, Minn. (PRWEB) November 13, 2005 – It’s become a coveted company position perhaps because its job description is so ambiguous – project manager – the person no doubt responsible for project “management.”

Project management is the discipline of defining and achieving a specified task within a specified time while optimizing resources such as time, money, people, space, and facilities. The concept evolved, according to Toney Sisk, Berkeley history professor, “starting in the early 1960s, businesses and other organizations began to see the benefit of organizing work around projects and to understand the critical need to communicate and integrate work across multiple departments and professions.” Even before that, Fredrick Taylor noted in his studies of work trends that analyzing labor into elementary parts focused organization and improved productivity.

Two common strategies in project management include a “traditional” approach and a “spiral” approach. In a traditional approach, steps are used as a linear basis for achieving the goal. The project is defined, planned, executed, monitored, and completed. The spiral approach is defined by smaller tasks within the larger project that sequentially or categorically spiral into one another and project momentum is derived from the endings and beginnings that overlap. With either approach, time, cost, quality, scope, and risk must be assessed and valued before a project is started.

Many traditional schools offer degrees in project management as a specialty of business management. Other alternative schools such as the Project Management Institute offer certifications that may or may not coincide with other business standards such as ISO.

As a project manager or business owner there are dozens of software programs now available that claim to ensure well-managed staff, quick risk resolution, improved deliverability rates, complete project documentation templates, best-practice methodologies, step-by-step guides, and a wealth of case study data.
For more Information, please visit http://www.project-management-centre.com

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