Project
is the A unique venture with a beginning and an end, undertaken by people to
meet established goals within defined constraints of time, resources, and
quality. A complex assignment involving more than one type of activity and
production. Projects can take a variety of forms; some examples are a mural
construction, a shared service project, or other collaborative or individual
effort. Project is a job that is done one time.
For
example Cooking meal is project. Heart surgery is a project. Project can vary
both in their subject and in their size the most obvious characteristics of
project are that it has to achieve a particular purpose and this is normally
indicated in the project name.
o A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to
create a unique product or service. Temporary means that the
project has an end date. Unique means that the project's end result is
different than the results of other functions of the organization.
o A Project is a unique venture with a beginning and an end,
undertaken by people to meet established goals within defined constraints of
time, resources, and quality.
o A project is a structure to complete a specific defined
deliverable or set of deliverables.
o A project has a specific begin date and end-date, specific
objectives and specific resources assigned to perform the work.
o A project manager has overall responsibility and authority over a
project. When the objectives are met, the project is considered complete
Projects are the way that most new work gets delivered.
o All projects have certain characteristics in common. They all have
a beginning and an end. Projects result in the creation of one or more
deliverables. Projects also have assigned resources - either full-time,
part-time or both. There are other characteristics as well. All organizations
have projects. Projects can be managed using a common set of project management
processes. In fact, a similar set of project management processes can be
utilized regardless of the type of project. All projects should be defined and
planned and all projects should manage scope, risk, quality, status, etc.
Project
management, however, defines the overall management and control processes for
the project. Project management does not actually result in the project
execution. At some point, you still need to define the actual activities
necessary to build your specific project deliverables. These activities are
referred to as the project lifecycle.
HARECTRISTICS OF A PROJECT
A project
is a unique set of co-ordinated activities, with definite starting and
finishing points, undertaken by an individual or team to meet specific
objectives within defined time, cost and performance parameters as specified in
the business case. It should have the following characteristics:
o A finite and defined lifespan
o Defined and measurable business products (that is, deliverables
and/or outcomes to meet specific business objectives)
o A corresponding set of activities to achieve the business products
o A defined amount of resources
o An organization structure, with defined responsibilities, to
manage the project. Projects should contribute to business objectives;
typically, their funding is identified as part of business planning. They may
be part of an overall program of business change.
The main characteristics of a project are that:
1)
It is an instrument of
change
2)
It has a clearly
identifiable start and finish.
3)
It has specific aim
4)
It results
Why
project is required?
It is
true that many organisations are either using or moving towards using
a managed-by-project approach to managing company business. But even those
companies whose major field of activity is manufacturing and production will
face a strong need for project-oriented activities from time to time. These times
occur mainly during times of change in a company. This might include a wide
variety of cases, from introducing a project line to installing a new internal
personnel training program. Companies need projects to be able to develop, to
flexible in answering the market, to carry out organisational structure change,
to grow in size, and to conquer new markets.
All of
these has given project management a new and more strategically oriented
prospective. Indeed, both making a strategic decision and implementing it can
be described in the framework of project management. This is a major reason why
project management is becoming more widely recognised and used throughout the
world.
This also
has two other major consequences:
The first
is that many of the practices of general management, especially those related
to human resources management and communications, are becoming more and more
important in project management.
The
second is that what initially developed as a unification of rather technically
or mathematically oriented tools and techniques focused on budget and schedule
control is now gaining more and more ‘humanitarian’ features.
The use
of project management, first in governmental projects and then as a tool for a
company’s internal change, has caused the development of new approaches and
tools of more qualitative character. It is hard to develop profit forecasts for
implementing new management training in a company or, worse, carrying out a
major program of civil service reform. We can use figure here, but to a grate
extent that will mean falsification of data. Instead, project management starts
by using many qualitative approaches and evaluation such as project success
criteria.
For now,
it is important to point out that project management is slowly getting outside
of the scope of a technical discipline that was developed to help choose
between cost, time, and quality of a project. Project management is becoming
more important strategically for the company as well as for general social and
economic development.
