Harvard Business Essentials Managing Projects Large and Small: The Fundamental Skills for Delivering on Budget and on Time

Introduction

Project management is an important tool of modern management, particularly for big jobs, unique jobs, and jobs that require many skills.We define project management as the allocation, tracking, and utilization of resources to achieve a particular objective within a specified period of time. This form of management focuses on the characteristic activities of a project, namely, a set of activities that (1) aims to produce a unique deliverable (for example, a new commercial airframe) and (2) is time-bound within clear beginning and ending points.The act of designing a new passenger car, for example, fits this definition of a project. Its deliverable may be defined as a unique set of market-tested vehicle specifications that can be ...