Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage, Fifth Edition

1 Introduction

Why Project Management?

Chapter Objectives

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

1. 1.1 Understand why project management is becoming such a powerful and popular practice in business.

2. 1.2 Recognize the basic properties of projects, including their definition.

3. 1.3 Understand why effective project management is such a challenge.

4. 1.4 Understand and explain the project life cycle, its stages, and the activities that typically occur at each stage in the project.

5. 1.5 Understand the concept of project “success,” including various definitions of success, as well as the alternative models of success.

6. 1.6 Understand the purpose of project management maturity models and the process of bench-marking in organizations.

7. 1.7 Recognize ...