Everyone manages projects – even if their official title isn’t “project manager”. Regardless of your industry, in a dynamic environment, project management is critical to achieving business goals. Project management can be defined as the actual, current process of creating, organizing and executing a plan in order to meet specific goals. However, project management is much more extensive in practice. The ability to deliver projects on schedule and on budget and in line with business objectives is critical to achieving an advantage in today’s highly competitive global business environment. This is where project managers come into play. In order to carry out a complex project task, they must combine organizational and analytical skills with interpersonal skills.

And in order to get into the core of project management, it is necessary to first define the term “project”. Everyone has encountered countless “projects”, both during school and at work, but what is the real definition? The Project Management Institute defines a project as a temporary undertaking invested in the creation of a unique product, service or result. This unique definition contains several key points:

• The word “temporary” means that projects must have a defined beginning and end. This means that every project must have a time frame, scope and resources. The fact that it is a temporary activity with a beginning and an end also means that it is not part of ongoing operations.
• The purpose of the project must be “to create a unique product, service or result.” This means that a project will be initiated to achieve a specific goal that is usually outside the realm of typical day-to-day operations. This means that the project team might include people who do not usually work together and require resources that are usually outside the scope of day-to-day operations.

Regardless, each project must have the following components

• Goal : what is trying to be achieved?
• Timeline : when are you trying to achieve it?
• Budget : how much will it cost?
• Covered users : which social or business group is covered and included in the project?
• Project Manager : the person who will ensure that everything that needs to be completed is completed?

The project that needs to be realized is not something routine – daily operations or maintenance are not considered project activities because they do not have a definite beginning and end.

Now we can define project management as a discipline – it is the application of a specific set of skills, knowledge and techniques to complete a given project according to given requirements. It boils down to identifying a problem, creating a plan to solve the problem, and then executing on that plan until the problem is solved. At first it sounds simple, while in practice many factors enter into each of the mentioned stages of the procedure.

There are five phases of project management:

• Initiation : the goal of this phase is to define the project and project goals.
• Planning : in this phase, the schedule and scope of activities are defined, along with the creation of the project team.
• Implementation and supervision : in this phase, project activities are carried out with the realization of certain results. At the same time, project managers supervise, evaluate and direct project activities in accordance with the given plan.
• Closing : the project is completed, evaluation takes place and transfer to another team that will maintain it.

Why is project management important in the business of an organization?

• It helps improve project planning and execution processes while adhering to the project budget, activity schedule, and activity scope.
• It solves project obstacles and problems that can escalate more quickly and easily.
• Identification of problems and termination of activities that have no relevant value.
• More effective collaboration between project teams.
• Risk identification and prediction.