What is project management? Some would argue that project management is a tactical tool used only by Project Managers for defining, planning, and tracking projects. Others would argue that it is strategic. And still others consider it a competency. The truth of the matter is project management is all three and more.

At the most fundamental level, Project Management is a set of processes, tools, and methods that help people achieve the work of an organization's strategic plan. The "work" people are charged to perform comes from the decomposition of a company's strategic plan. Work involves either operations or projects. What distinguishes projects from operations is that projects are unique and temporary whereas operations are repetitive and ongoing.

Project Management as a Strategic Tool

Project Management is a strategic tool that provides the link between corporate strategy and project execution. It is the critical link between senior managements' vision and business objectives and the work of the organization. Project Management also provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of a company's portfolio of projects by calculating, for example, earned value and ROI. By taking a view of a project at a point in time and calculating the earned value metrics, an organization can compare the planned with the actual and make an assessment of the project progress and estimate the costs through project completion. Having access to the individual and collective financial and resource data of an organization's projects is critical for senior management to realistically forecast. More importantly, Project Management makes concrete the abstract idea of value.

Project Management as a Tactical Tool

Project Management is also a tactical tool in that the tools and techniques allow project managers to define, plan, track, control, report, and evaluate projects using logical and analytical methods that are standard within the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and widely used among industries. Some of the standard tools and processes of Project Management include: Work Breakdown structure, effort and duration estimates, dependency analysis, critical path analysis, resource loading/ leveling, risk management, and Gantt chart tracking and controlling.

A company's Project Management Methodology can provide, in a stable and consistent manner, a constant stream of valuable information over the life of a project about resource utilization, quality controls, budget utilization, financial analysis (ROI), time to market, time to delivery, skill set deficiencies, and competencies, for example. A Project Management Methodology supports post-project analysis so companies can change ineffective practices and strengthen their intellectual property. The meaningful data captured from Project Management allows multiple levels of management to make better and more reliable decisions about risk, quality, costs, time, budgets, returns, process improvements, resource utilization, standards of quality, standards of ethics, change management, and change control.

Project Management as a Competency

Project management is also a competency. It is certainly a skill that is taught and learned, but beyond the skill level is the honing of a set of Project Management competencies, such as the ability to manage projects in a unifying and integrative manner that cuts across all departments and functions and moves through territorial silos. Competencies also includes the ability to lead a diverse team, influence, make decisions, manage scope, time, quality, budgets, and resources, stay focused, handle change and crises, and know when to kill a project. Projects are only as successful as the people who manage and work on them. Evaluating Project Management competencies in an organization is essential so Project Managers and team members can be matched with the types of projects they are best suited to lead and work on.

Maturing Project Management

Like anything that is meaningful, successful Project Management requires commitment from all levels of leadership. It requires the organization to continuously build solid skills and competencies among the Project Managers and team members. One of the most effective ways of determining the level of Project Management maturity and competencies in an organization is to complete a Gap analysis assessment of the current Project Management state and the future Project Management state.

Growing Project Management in an organization also requires the following elements:

1. Management sponsorship.
2. Overarching Project Management charter.
3. PM Methodology for defining, planning, implementation, and close-out.
4. PM Methodology for Project Integration.
5. Risk escalation, change management, financial management, and portfolio management procedures.
6. Understanding and aligning with business and financial objectives.
7. Careful top-down planning and support.
8. Clearly defined Project Management competencies.
9. Continuous Project Management training and coaching for long-term development, consistency and continuity.
10. Creation of a Chief Project Officer.