Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to describe, organize, supervise and control the various processes of the project.
But perhaps project management can best be described in terms of the things you need to do to successfully manage a project:

Integration Management – Develop and manage a project plan

Scope Management – ​​Plan, define, and manage project scope

Time and cost management – ​​create a project schedule, plan resources, and budget costs

Quality Management – Develop a quality plan and carry out quality assurance and quality control activities.

Human resource management: perform organizational planning, manage staff acquisitions and promote team development

Communications Management – Develop a Communications Plan

Risk management: identify risks, prepare risk mitigation plans and execute contingency actions

Procurement Management: The focus is soliciting, selecting, and managing vendors to complete project work or supply project materials.

The degree to which a Project Manager can carry out each of these activities is based on the nature, size and complexity of the project and the level of project management experience.

Brief history

Project management was first used to manage the US space program. Its practice has now rapidly expanded through the government, military, and corporate world. Here is the main definition of what project management is:

1. Project management is not an easy task.

2. Project management has a definite beginning and end. It is not a continuous process.

3. Project management uses various measurement tools to perform and track project tasks. These include Gantt and Pert charts.

4. Projects often need additional resources compared to organizations that have full-time positions.

There are three main points that are most important for a successful project:

1. A Project must meet customer requirements.

2. A project must be under budget.

3. A Project must be on time.

There are four phases that a project goes through. The role of the project manager in project management is one of great responsibility. The project manager’s job is to direct and oversee the project from start to finish. Here are some other roles:

1. The project manager must define the project, reduce the project to a manageable set of tasks, obtain the appropriate and necessary resources, and assemble a team or teams to perform the work of the project.

2. The project manager must set the final goal of the project and must motivate his workers to complete the project on time.

3. A project manager must have technical skills. This relates to financial planning, contract management and creative thinking management and problem solving techniques are promoted.
4. No project goes 100% as planned, so project managers must learn to adapt to change.

There are many things that can go wrong with project management. These are commonly called barriers. Here are some potential barriers:

1. Poor communication: Many times a project can fail because the project team doesn’t know exactly what to do or what has already been done.

2. Disagreement – The project must comply with all the elements of a contract. The client and the project manager must agree on many elements.

3. Failure to comply with rules and regulations.

4. Inclement weather.

5. Union strikes.

6. Personality conflicts.

7. Bad management

8. Poorly defined project objectives

Project management processes
The following processes are derived from the Project Management Institute – American National Standard, although they are modified for practicality and are greatly simplified. Note that the standard includes many more business process activities. Each management process below is described primarily in terms of its general objectives and main activities.

Integration Management
The goal of integration management is to coordinate the various interrelated processes of a project. To properly manage these activities, a project manager must do the following:

Develop a project plan

Acquire plan approval.

Manage the execution of all the activities described in it

Update the plan as changes occur

Communicate changes to key project stakeholders

The project plan:

Describe the goals of the project and how those goals will be achieved.

Describes the deliverables of the project.

It contains all the activities that will occur for the various project management processes. The plan should have a section that deals with scope, a section that deals with project schedule, risks, etc.

The project plan acts as a guide for the project team by describing what needs to happen, who needs to do it, and when. The project plan also acts as a baseline for measuring project performance. The project manager compares the actual work completed with the planned work; actual costs versus estimated costs, etc.

Scope Management
Scope management ensures that the project includes all the work necessary, and only the work necessary, to complete the project successfully. To manage scope, a project manager needs to:

Define the scope in terms of the project deliverables.
Respond appropriately to stakeholder requests for changes (Note that scope changes will almost always have an effect, usually negative, on project costs and/or timelines. This means you must balance the wants and demands of key stakeholders with their needs and with their expectations regarding project costs and timelines).
If applicable, make changes to the project scope based on project performance (reduce the number and/or complexity of deliverables if performance is inadequate)

Document scope changes in the project plan
Communicate scope changes to key stakeholders through the revised project plan and, if necessary, get approval to proceed
Controlling the scope of the project is usually one of the most difficult tasks for a project manager. A moving target is hard to hit, and inadequate scope management will likely cause the project to fail (either canceled, over budget, completed late, or failing to meet stakeholder needs).

Time and cost management
The goal of time and cost management is to ensure that the project is completed on time and within budget.
To do this, a project manager needs:

Develop a project schedule

resource plan

Estimated cost

monitor performance

A project schedule sets out the various activities (or tasks) for the project in an activity list. An estimate of how long the activity is expected to take is included for each. The schedule is then used to estimate the resources needed (ie, people, materials, etc.) to complete each activity. From there, the cost of each activity is calculated.
The resulting documentation is used to monitor project performance by comparing actual performance against estimates.

Quality management
The objective of Quality Management is to ensure that the project meets the needs for which it was undertaken.
To do this, a project manager needs:

Develop a quality plan.

Carry out quality control activities.

A quality plan describes what activities will be performed during the course of a project to ensure that the project is successful (meaning that it meets the needs of interested parties).

A quality plan can be formal or informal, highly detailed or a simple checklist, depending on the nature and complexity of the project.

Human resources management
The objective of the Human Resource Management process is to ensure the most effective use of the people involved in the project.
To do this, a project manager needs:

Carry out organizational planning

personnel plan

Promote team development

Good organizational planning is a key component of successful projects. A project manager needs to precisely define roles and responsibilities so that there is no confusion about who does what and who decides what.

Staff planning involves planning when and how people will join the project team and when they will leave. This is especially important when your team is made up of members who do not report directly to the project manager but to someone else in the organization.

Communications Management
The goal of communications management is to promote effective communication between project team members and key stakeholders.
To do this, a project manager needs:

Develop a communications plan.
A communication plan describes who needs what information, when they need it, and how it will be provided.

Risk management
The objective of the Risk Management process is to ensure that project risks are identified, analyzed and responded to.
To do this, a project manager needs:

Identify risks
Prepare risk mitigation plans
Take action as needed