Engineering Project Management

1The Role and the Challenge

What is engineering project management? Why do we teach engineering project management? Do engineering projects matter to society? Do engineering projects matter to business? What is a “project?” What is an “engineering project?” What is a “project manager?” In this chapter, we discuss all of these questions, and also provide you basic information about the role of engineering project manager and the opportunity that this role represents for you.

1.1 Introduction

In this book, we study the subject of engineering project management. Let's look carefully at the first two of those three words:

• “Project.” By this word, we mean a deliberately undertaken endeavor to create something that we believe will be of value. This desired result might be a tangible artifact (“product”), or it might be a service. We might plan to use it ourselves, or we might be planning to offer it for sale.
• “Engineering project.” By adding the modifier “engineering,” we now indicate that the methods we will use to create this result involve “engineering.” By this we mean the methods that we will use depend significantly on the application of technology and technological concepts in order to achieve a practical effect. Other disciplines – such as finance, art, and so forth – may also be made use of in order to create our desired product or service, but by identifying this as an “engineering project,” we are indicating that we consider the role played by the application technology ...