Project Management is the acquired knowledge and skills applied using a formal set of tools and techniques to initiate, plan, execute, monitor, control and close projects.

In today's economy, all business lines have incorporated Project Management as an integral part of their operational practices. Project Management has helped businesses to accompalish their pre-defined objectives within the defined time limits. Project Management has facilitated all business sectors to make profitable decisions as well as operationalize strategies to bring their projects to completion.

Project Management has brought profitability to various Business Lines in numerous ways. Few of the important ones have been summarized below. Project Management has provided:

• A clear project framework for achieving project specific goals and business goals.
  
  
• An emphasis on phased development i.e. regular and measurable progress.
• A systematic approach to resolving high-risk factors associated with an objective.
  
  
• A focus on team thus inculcating the concept of teamwork and skill specialization – delegating tasks to team members selected for their skills that correspond to the requirements of the project, leading to specialized input into the development process.
  
  
• A built-in mechanism for assessing the feasibility of a proposed project – assessing requirements and matching available resources to those requirements.
  
  
• A process for involving all concerned parties into project execution, ensuring that the end product perfectly matches the requirements and thus avoiding last minute glitches.
  
  
• A measure for incorporating Quality Assurance within the project life cycle thus producing Quality Outputs.
  
  

The above list is by no means exhaustive, but it gives very accurate picture of what value add Effective Project Management can do to the business and its projects.

To get a better understanding on what Project Management is, lets us now have a look on the various Project Management Objectives.

Project Management Objectives

• Coordinate the various interrelated processes of the project.
• Ensure project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.
• Ensure that the project is completed on time and within budget.
• Ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.
• Ensure the most effective use of the people involved with the project.
• Promote effective communication between the projects team members and key stakeholders.
• Ensure that project risks are identified, analyzed, and responded.

In practice, Project Management follows a Phased Approach for Project Excution and have a standard defined Project Life Cycle. Teamwork and Quality Assurance are few important inherent characteristics of successful Project Management.