Projects are conducted by businesses for a set period of time and with specific goals. Companies allot a specific amount of resources and budgets for the management and successful completion of these temporary endeavors. Teams are typically assigned to projects and these teams may be from different organizations and/or different geographical locations, including different countries. The types of projects companies undertake may be expanding sales into new geographic markets, constructing a new building or bridge, or even coordinating the relief effort after a hurricane, earthquake, or other natural disaster. These are only a few examples of the wide variety of projects that require management.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines project management as “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project requirements.” All projects must be managed by skilled, knowledgeable professionals to meet the organization’s deadlines and to stay within budget requirements. The core responsibilities of project management are initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing projects. The areas that project management professionals pay attention to in their work are: integration, scope, time, cost, quality, procurement, human resources, communications, risk management, and stakeholder management.

The field of project management is relatively young. While project management has been conducted in businesses for hundreds of years, it was never done formally. The tasks involved in managing a project were usually handled by someone who also had numerous other responsibilities to handle. One area where the tools and techniques for project management originated is in construction projects. To complete the projects, architects, engineers, and master builders needed to develop the plans, coordinate the logistics, communicate with each other throughout the construction process, and oversee the workers and quality of the w...