5 Main Elements of Modern Project Management are described below:
Modern project management approach was developed in the early 1960s. First application of modern project management approach was found in the US Space Programme. Tracing history, we find that the project management has its roots to 19th century.
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More scientific approach to the project management was subsequently felt important to reap the benefits of organized work around specific projects, coordination and communication of the project management related work across the departments or divisions of the organization, etc.
Without trying for general definition of project management, let us first consider what the elements of project management are. Basic elements of project management are:
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i. Project management is a discontinuous process with definite beginning and end.
ii. Project management practices require usage of various tools to monitor and track the project. Some of the widely used project management tools like, Gantt chart and PERT have already been discussed in this chapter.
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iii. Resource allocation to projects may not be fixed; with the progress of work, it may require ad hoc resource allocation.
iv. Risk and probability of failure in project management are considerably less, since it adopts more flexibility in managing the work. Such flexibility ensures lean management, which optimizes the resources. Lean management optimizes resources, eliminating the wastages and adding value to the products.
v. Project management considers three most important factors like; time, cost and scope.
With the above backdrop, we can define project management as under:
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Project management is a process in managing a discontinuous work or task within a budget and time constraint, achieving customers’ satisfaction.