What is Project Management – And Why Should You Care?

We often think of companies in ways that focus on the continuous production of a product or service. For example, insurance companies process claims, auto manufacturers make cars on assembly lines, recycling companies take in trash and separate it into various types and components for sale and distribution. These types of operations have fairly static and predictable characteristics.

However, when companies want to create new capabilities, or bring new products to market, or revamp existing processes, that type of activity doesn't fit into an "operational" framework. Instead, we need to think in terms of project management.

Projects, as compared to operations, have:

• defined starting and ending points
• specific scope and product, process, or functional requirements
• defined costs, and
• a defined threshold of acceptance by a customer.

The science and art of successfully bringing these elements together is what constitutes project management. 

Almost every company faces situations where the appropriate use of project management makes good business sense. Some companies build their product/service capabilities around project management. For example:

• A company that does website design for external clients in fact mounts a unique project for each client they service.
• A consumer goods company introducing a new shampoo to market creates and executes a unique marketing campaign for that shampoo.
• An engineering firm that designs lighting systems mounts a new project for each building that goes up.

On the other hand, some companies will use a project management approach to create new capabilities. For example:

• A not-for-profit company that needs to upgrade its phone system undertakes the call-volume analysis and internal utilization reporting to identify prospective systems, arrange for bidding and purchasing, installation, and employee training.
• A printing company that needs to relocate to a new space to allow additional printing and mailing load as a result of increased customer and job volume.

Project management can serve as a powerful tool to advance capabilities, and to introduce new products and services. Those capabilities, products or services may be customer-facing, or serve internal needs.

In the hands of skilled project managers, the project management approach can gather input from necessary stakeholders, define project scope, help define the project budget and timeline, and see the project through to its successful conclusion. The company's new capability or product is then put into service, and becomes part of normal company operations.

Managers need to know when they should consider using project management approaches. If those managers don't have the project management skills needed for a given project that is important to the company, they might consider the most effective ways to bring those skills aboard for the duration of the project.

Sometimes, that may mean bringing in someone from the outside. At other times, it may mean providing project management training to seasoned managers who already know the company.

For more information on project management, there will be other posts here in the future. But a good starting point if you're looking for more information is the Project Management Institute (PMI.org).