Project Management - An Introduction

A project is said to be any activity whose output is a deliverable or a product. Projects vary in scope. The development of a large system to the programming of a single module is a project. Even feasibility project results or project analysis results, benchmarks, and training courses are also projects.

Project Management on the other hand, is just what it is, the management of a project. Yet as simple and as self-evident as the definition may sound it is not something that can be done ‘cake and pie’ or ‘piece of cake and as simple as pie’. Many people get confused with Project Management involving Information Technology because of the “T” word: technology. However IT project management is not much different from other forms of project management like the construction of a bridge for that matter. The overall process of developing a system – analysis, design, implementation and maintenance aka Software Development Life Cycle – is a complex process that requires effective management. Therefore a project’s success would depend greatly on how the project was handled from start to end.

Some organizations that develop their own information systems do experience that while the system performs to the required standards, the delivery date is often considerably later than the target date and so the final costs greatly exceed what was included in the budget proposal. There are also cases when the system was completed on time and within budget but then is found lacking in quality and is not really able to meet the user’s needs.