Chapter 1 Introduction
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK
®
Guide) Third Edition
8 2004 Project Management Institute, Four Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 USA
1.3 What is Project Management?
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to
project activities to meet project requirements. Project management is accomplished
through the application and integration of the project management processes of
initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. The project
manager is the person responsible for accomplishing the project objectives.
Managing a project includes:
x Identifying requirements
x Establishing clear and achievable objectives
x Balancing the competing demands for quality, scope, time and cost
x Adapting the specifications, plans, and approach to the different concerns and
expectations of the various stakeholders.
Project managers often talk of a “triple constraint”—project scope, time and
cost—in managing competing project requirements. Project quality is affected by
balancing these three factors (Chapters 5 through 7). High quality projects deliver the
required product, service or result within scope, on time, and within budget. The
relationship among these factors is such that if any one of the three factors changes,
at least one other factor is likely to be affected. Project managers also manage
projects in response to uncertainty. Project risk is an uncertain event or condition
that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on at least one project objective.
The project management team has a professional responsibility to its
stakeholders including customers, the performing organization, and the public. PMI
members adhere to a “Code of Ethics” and those with the Project Management
Professional (PMP
®
) certification adhere to a “Code of Professional Conduct.”
Project team members who are PMI members and/or PMPs are obligated to adhere
to the current versions of these codes.
It is important to note that many of the processes within project management
are iterative because of the existence of, and necessity for, progressive elaboration in
a project throughout the project’s life cycle. That is, as a project management team
learns more about a project, the team can then manage to a greater level of detail.
The term “project management” is sometimes used to describe an
organizational or managerial approach to the management of projects and some
ongoing operations, which can be redefined as projects, that is also referred to as
“management by projects.” An organization that adopts this approach defines its
activities as projects in a way that is consistent with the definition of a project
provided in Section 1.2.2. There has been a tendency in recent years to manage more
activities in more application areas using project management. More organizations
are using “management by project.” This is not to say that all operations can or
should be organized into projects. The adoption of “management by project“ is also
related to the adoption of an organizational culture that is close to the project
management culture described in Section 2.3. Although, an understanding of project
management is critical to an organization that is using “management by projects,” a
detailed discussion of the approach itself is outside the scope of this standard.