What Is Project Management?

At a recent training session, one learner was overheard to say, “I just came out of development work to be a project manager.” This is a refreshing statement, because not only do people confuse process and projects, they also confuse development and project work. The cost of this confusion is that people neglect project management work, which causes development to continue without a direction or plan, leading to missed deadlines, poor quality, or expensive rework.

Simply put, project management consists of planning, organizing, and controlling work. The person responsible for project management plans for the needs of a project, then organizes and controls project resources as the project progresses. This person has ...

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