Project Management Concepts
This chapter introduces the foundational ideas of project management. You will learn what defines a project, the key roles and responsibilities, the constraints that must be balanced, how risk is managed, and the difference between predictive and agile delivery approaches.
What is a project?
A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined start and end that produces a unique product, service, or result. This distinguishes it from operations, which are ongoing and repetitive. Because projects are temporary and unique, they require planning, coordination, and a defined way to know when they are complete, which is captured in scope and acceptance criteria.
Roles and responsibilities
Projects involve several key roles. The sponsor funds the project, sets high-level direction, and champions it within the organization. The project manager plans, coordinates, and controls the work and communicates across stakeholders. Team members perform the tasks, while stakeholders are anyone affected by or able to influence the project. A project management office (PMO) may set standards and provide support across many projects.
The triple constraint
Scope, schedule, and cost form the triple constraint, often visualized as a triangle with quality at the center. Changing one usually affects the others: expanding scope tends to increase time and cost, while cutting the schedule may raise cost or reduce scope. A project manager's job is to keep these in balance and to route any requested change through a formal process rather than silently absorbing it.
Risk management and delivery approaches
Risk management identifies potential events, records them in a risk register, and plans responses. The four common response strategies for threats are avoid (eliminate the risk), mitigate (reduce probability or impact), transfer (shift impact to a third party, such as insurance), and accept (take no proactive action). Delivery approaches range from predictive (waterfall), which plans extensively up front, to agile, which delivers in short iterations and welcomes change, with hybrid approaches blending both.