What is Project Management?

Project management is the planning, steering, and monitoring of projects to achieve specific objectives within a given timeframe and budget.

Project Management:
Definition | Examples | Synonyms

Project management refers to initiating, planning, steering, and monitoring individual projects as well as completing them successfully. Project managers use various methods, tools, and techniques to implement their projects. They must distribute and coordinate the required tasks within the project team in order to complete the project within a specific timeframe.

Meisterplan PPM

A Practical Example

Sylvia is a project manager in a software company. Her team has the task of developing a new app. First, Sylvia clarifies the details of the project brief and the goals of the project. What exactly should the app be able to do and what are the stakeholders’ expectations? She plans milestones within the project so that her team can work towards intermediate goals.

She also sets up regular meetings with her team members. This allows her to manage and monitor the project process from start to finish. She has to prevent or solve emerging problems in a timely manner. For example, if a developer is sick and becomes unavailable for a longer period of time, Sylvia can react immediately and re-plan resources.

Sylvia also communicates with key stakeholders and keeps them updated. Thanks to Sylvia’s good planning and support, her team manages to complete the app by the deadline and all the stakeholders are satisfied.

Flow im Multiprojektmanagement Header

Synonyms und Abbreviation

A common abbreviation for project management is PM. There are no synonyms. But pay close attention – terms such as project portfolio management (PPM), process management, program management, or project controlling are often incorrectly used synonymously with project management.

FAQ

What does a project manager do?

A project manager is responsible for leading their project team to the successful completion of a project. To do this, they clarify the goals and the project assignment, create a project structure plan (if necessary), and plan deadlines and milestones. Then, they distribute and coordinate tasks within the project team.

They monitor progress and ensure that the project adheres to the set timelines, budgets, and requirements. They also expertly utilize soft skills such as team leadership, self-management, social skills, and stress management. Productive communication with team members and other stakeholders is also an important task for project managers.

They report to management on the project status and request resources from team or resource managers. Project managers also take care of resolving any conflicts or complications that come up. By promptly informing stakeholders of changes, they can ensure the availability of necessary resources.

What are the project management phases?

The typical phases in project management are:

  1. Initiation: Developing an idea for a project and presenting it to those responsible.
  2. Planning: Thinking ahead about how the project will be approached, what the intermediate and final goals are, and how it can be completed successfully.
  3. Execution: Making the plan a reality. This involves completing tasks step by step and working towards intermediate goals and the final goal.
  4. Monitoring: Regularly checking progress and setting up meetings to make sure everything is going according to plan and any problems can be resolved.
  5. Project Completion: Achieving the final goal by the specified deadline.

What is the iron triangle of project management?

The iron triangle is used to determine whether a project was appropriately and successfully planned. It visualizes the interrelationships between the following three components: scope, time, and cost. These three dimensions define the boundaries of each project. For example:

  • As the scope of a project increases, the team needs more time and consequently the company must invest more money.
  • If the team determines that they need more time to implement a project, the costs and scope automatically increase.
  • If the cost of the project needs to be reduced, this means that less time can be invested and the scope of the project becomes smaller.

The goal is to keep all dimensions as balanced as possible.

What is the difference between project management and project portfolio management?

Project management is about the implementation of individual projects and the processing of specific tasks within these projects. Project portfolio management (PPM) is one level above: this is where decisions are made.

For examples, some questions you need to address during PPM are:

  • Which projects are being implemented?
  • Which resources and roles are available?
  • Where in the portfolio can the project be planned?
  • Are there dependencies on other projects?
  • Which resources do you need for project implementation? And when do you need them?

Project Management with Meisterplan

Meisterplan is not a project management tool per se – but that doesn’t mean that Meisterplan won’t also benefit project managers and their teams!

In Meisterplan, you can record all project information that will then be used for long-term planning in PPM. You can request resources for your projects that are actually available. And with the help of our time tracking feature, you can easily track the progress of the projects and see whether things are going according to plan. Thanks to PPM and Meisterplan, you have clear priorities across all your projects.

You and your teams can continue working the way you always have because Meisterplan makes it easy to integrate project management tools such as Jira, Trello, Asana, and more.

Homepage Integrations

Discover More Here!

Dive even deeper into the topics of project, portfolio and resource management: Each page offers expert knowledge, product insights and a wealth of experience we'd like to share with you.

Your battery is almost empty.