Project
A project is by its nature an unique series of interconnected activities with a definable purpose or end product. Generally considered as complex, they usually require the involvement of multiple skills/professions/disciplines. Therefore, they frequently involve different entities within an organisation, and more often from different organisations to act in unison with each other, in circumstances where the line of authority is hierarchical (vertical) and the required interaction is stratified (horizontal). This structure dictating that conflict and stress is endemic, and calls for unique management procedures.
Project Management
As the name suggests, Project Management is the process of applying management skills to a project. The management techniques employed, although akin to classical management of continuing stable processes, must be peculiar to the needs of the individual project, all of which are dynamic in nature. Since the project has a finite life (ie it has a beginning and an end), the infrastructure required to carry it out is temporary in nature—indeed one could consider the effective Project Management team to be efficiently working itself out of a job.
The successful completion of Project Management requires the transformation of the Project from conception, through the various stages of its life cycle, to satisfactory completion. This must be achieved within the constraints of time, cost, quality, and performance, which are set at the outset. By the unique nature of each Project, consequently each has aspects that have not previously been done, or done in the particular manner or order, thus requiring an iterative process to achieve optimisation. Constrains and goals for the Project, along with other aspects, may be readjusted and fine tuned during the project’s various life cycle phases, always with aim to holistic betterment and based on value assessment.