Introduction
A project is defined as an undertaking to create a distinctive service or product (Project Management Institute, 2004). A project is a temporary venture. The duration of a project can be one month, 2 years or it might go for years but a project must have an end date. Project involves tracking resources, agendas and specifications in some manner.
From the above definition of a project, project management can be defined as a methodological approach to planning, correcting deviations and guiding the project process from the beginning to the end. According to the Project Management Institute, the processes are guided through five stages: commencement, planning, implementing, controlling, and concluding. Project management is widely used to manage the multifaceted processes of software development projects and can be used in almost all types of projects. A good example of a methodological for guiding the process of project management from initial stages to the maintenance of the application completed is systems development life cycle (SDLC).
In the field of project management, every project has three essential elements: Time, Cost and Scope (Ireland, 2006). Limited time is a major constraint which this is may be due to limited resources or poor planning skills, but project managers should strive to ensure that the project are complete within the stipulated time.
Project cost has a broader meaning and not simply in monetary terms. Costs include all the required resources to carry out the project: people and equipment that do work, materials used and all the events that require cash or someone’s attention in a project.
Scope is broadly categorised into two: product scope and project scope. Every successful project produces an exclusive product. Product scope describes the intended quality, characteristics and products function. Project scope describes the tasks required to provide a product with the product scope intended, it is usually measured in phases and tasks. Project management would get to be more interesting if cost, time and scope constraints of projects are in agreement.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that in the field of project management succeeding as a project manager requires timely completion of projects, finishing within budget and ensuring that customers are happy with the project results (product). This may sound simple, but many are the times that managers find themselves to be completing projects late, cost being too high and fail to meet the customers’ needs.
