project management

Explain the difference between what is project and what project management is.

To differenciate between a project and project management one must start by understanding what a project is .A project is something which has an objective ,it requires range of resources which can be internal as well as external .Every project have its own life cycles also called as project life cycle ,they normally starts slowly and with a passage of time they reach the peak and then begins to decline and finally they are terminated this is because every project is given a limited time line within which they must be completed which is why projects have a finite life.There were some very comprehensive articles written by Paul o.Gaddis in the Harward Business Review(May-June1959) which actually gave an extensive importance to Project Management .In one of his notion he defines project as “an organizational unit dedicated to delivering a delevelopment project on time ,within budget and within the technical performance specifications given to it”

When an organization is undertaking a project the main reason for this is to accomplish specific goals which can actually be achieved with the help of Project management.It is basically a careful approach to panning and guiding project processes from the beginning of a project to the end.According to the Project Management Institute the processes goes through five stages which are commencement ,planning,organising,controlling and closing.In the first phase of the process the main objectives,goals and strategies of the project are indentified,it is very important as it gives an overall picture of what an organization is aiming for and why is it aiming?.Different diagrams and graphs are used such as Gantt charts and PERT charts to create a graphic representation of the project plan.In the organising phase the organization decides who should be involved in the organizing and managing the project other than that the project management authority ,responsibility ,policies ,procedures and techniques are established so that the project can run smoothly without disrupting other functions and operations of the organization.it has been argued that during this phase the work flow and the project coordination must be managed horizontally and not vertically,which means that the chain of command of an organization should be horizontal the reason being is that with the horizontal chain of command the work is organized across the various functional groups working with each other as it leads to better coordination and communication among employees and managers

The fundamental of a project is to deliver something new,therefore professionals and specialized people are normally hired to do the job ,this is because in the third phase it is required by the team to evaluate the progress of the project.Therefor cost ,schedule and technical performance standards needed for the project is established and also an information system for the project is also established.With the help of proper means and evaluation techniques the management team can see the progress of the project as well as identify the risks and come with any new decisions required at this phase.

While the project goes through organising and controlling phase it uses several considerable resources which actually speeds up the project management process but as the project reaches the completion or the termination stage it slows down .Hence in the last stage the resources which were used by the project are transferred to other organizations and the project is terminated .Finally the people or the project team is rewarded for their commitment towards the completion of the project .This is how the project is differenciated with project management because project is something which can be said as an idea ,a brand new experience ,something which has been never done before ,something which has never been achieved before and project management is a root and the key for achieving it through both human and non human resources.