Week 1 Discussion and Project

Distinct Type of Management Specific Variables © 2016 South University Distinct Type of Management Projects have existed and have been managed for millennia. Only in recent decades, project management has evolved into a distinct kind of management. This is because the project management environment has different characteristics than the functional management environment. The current business environment is demanding more project organizations, methods, and skilled managers. The main thing that sets project management apart from other kinds of management is the triple constraint—quality, cost, and schedule. Projects have firm boundaries, or limits, when it comes to:

• Achieving a challenging, innovative level of performance • Staying within a firm budget • Not exceeding a planned schedule •

Though each of these parameters is a challenge in its own right, the main challenge in project management is to find the optimal set of trade-offs among these parameters. Project management and strategic management have different managerial worldviews, but they are linked. Strategic management is all about satisfying a balance of stakeholder interests, often the most important of which are those of investors and owners. Some projects are specifically aimed at achieving a level of change that radically restores that orientation, while others called capital projects are chosen for their ongoing contribution to making a return on investment. Not all projects have immediate strategic value, but all ultimately determine the internal functioning of the organization. .