What is Project Management?
Project Management has been identified as one of the hottest fields for the future. Technological developments and the subsequent rise of teamwork in the workplace have demanded a type of management different than traditional hierarchal management. Project Management takes these changes into account and focuses on the prompt and in-budget delivery of services and products. Expansion of the Project Management discipline and increases in the number of industries recruiting people with these skills is expected to continue far into the twenty-first century. Project Management skills are becoming a required core competency for growth and quality oriented organizations.
The phenomenal growth of Project Management has been fueled by an acceptance that a particular type of management expertise is needed for handling change. Multi-tiered classical management has proven to be an inappropriate vehicle for managing projects and change. Technological innovations have automated much of the routine work in many organizations, leaving the non-routine, project work to be completed by individuals within semi-autonomous work groups. This phenomenon has occurred to such an extent that some people believe that hierarchical management could be totally replaced by Project Management within the next ten years.
Project Management is not a new profession. The technical tools of the trade (i.e. work breakdown structures, network diagrams, critical path method, Gantt charts, etc.) have been in existence since the 1940's. What is new and what makes the profession so attractive today is the growing emphasis on business strategy, organizational change, and the skills of human relations. Corporations have discovered that they desperately need people who can develop new business strategies and products, communicate effectively, and, if necessary, lead company reorganizations and transformations. These same people must also be able to motivate people to deliver high quality products and services on time and within budget.
The Project Management Institute, founded in 1969, is a 110,000 member international association dedicated to developing professional standards for the field and providing research and educational support for its members. PMI has the distinction of being one of the fastest growing professional organizations in the world. The Institute maintains the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK); the nine disciplines a project manager must master, and the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification program.
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