Projectmanagement

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

  1. The discipline of planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling resources and tasks to achieve specific goals within a set timeframe and budget; the process of guiding a project from initiation to completion effectively and efficiently; a method to ensure project objectives are met through structured activities and team collaboration
  2. A systematic approach to defining, planning, executing, and closing projects by managing scope, time, cost, quality, and team roles in order to deliver intended outcomes; the practice of overseeing project phases to align deliverables with goals; the coordination of efforts and resources to meet project deadlines and requirements
  3. An organized method involving setting objectives, allocating resources, scheduling tasks, and monitoring progress to complete unique efforts; the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to fulfill project demands; a structured way to manage temporary endeavors directed toward producing a singular product, service, or result

Etymology: Project management is a compound of two words that each arrived in English by different routes. "Project" comes from Latin "projectum," meaning "something thrown forward," from "proicere," to throw forth. Its earliest English sense, recorded from the 1400s, was a plan or scheme, and only later did it come to mean a planned undertaking. "Management" grew from the Italian "maneggiare," to handle or train horses, a sense that narrowed in English to controlling or directing people and affairs. The compound itself is a much newer creation. Its use as a term for organising and steering a planned piece of work is generally traced to the mid-twentieth century, when engineering and construction firms formalised methods for coordinating complex jobs with fixed deadlines and budgets. The phrase describes a discipline before it describes a job title, so its history runs alongside the rise of managerial professions rather than predating them.

Synonyms: project planning, project coordination, project administration