Web Project Management

what Is Project Management?

The Project Management Institute's definition of PM is: "... the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements."(PMBOK Guide, 3rd Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., Pennsylvania, 2004.)
A less abstract version of this definition is that PM is what you need to make a project happen on time, within budget, with required scope, and quality.
My personal definition is that PM is the simplest way to look like a superhero without requiring the involvement of any radioactive spiders or questionable parentage.

There are also lots of things that PM isn't, the most notable being a replacement for personal productivity. Whether you use a simple todo.txt file, a hipster PDA, or a full GTD (that stands for Getting Things Done) system to keep yourself organized, you're still going to need to use PM tactics. PM is all about making the project happen -- how you complete the work that you need to do for the project is up to you. Mixing up personal productivity and PM is one of the main reasons for those groaning reactions I mentioned earlier: if you make your PM tools double up as your to-do list, then you're obviously going to end up with a lot more detail than anyone else in the project (including the client!) needs to see. It's a very common mistake seen with smaller projects, where realistically the project manager is also doing a lot of the project work, if not all. It can be a lot easier to keep the distinction in large-scale projects with dedicated project managers, but even there you see evidence of the mistake, with project plans starting to look more like personal brainstorms rather than a path to a future that involves getting home in time to see your kids.
Now that we've talked a little about what PM is and isn't, let's move on to looking at the project lifecycle.

The Generic Project Lifecycle

The generic project lifecycle is fairly simple -- first you begin the project (Initiation), then you go on to actually do the project (Planning, Executing, and Controlling, which form a loop, since expecting things to go right first time is rather unrealistic) and finally you finish by making everyone happy and, with any luck, receiving payment (Closure). This process is illustrated in Figure 1.



Since typically most time and effort is spent in the Executing (completing tasks) and Controlling (keeping everything on track) phases, many people think these are the most important. It is true that these should be where you spend most of your time -- after all, nothing would be completed if you didn't! -- but they are not the most important.
The most important project phases are Initiation, Planning, and Closure.