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Project Management is not Merely
for Project Managers
Raj Kalady
Managing Director, PMI India
20
structured approach to doing things combined
with sensitization to risk, improved risk
management, communication and time
management. I would like to illustrate this by
referring to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), a project
management guide from the Project Management
Institute, and an internationally recognized
standard, that provides the fundamentals of
project management as they apply to a wide
range of projects.
The role of a Project Manager, especially in
large/traditional industries like oil/petroleum is The PMBOK® Guide recognizes 42 processes that
often a tenured role with job rotation ensuring fall into five basic process groups and nine
that employees move on to different roles. In such knowledge areas that are typical of almost all
cases how does the organization justify the projects. It is to these knowledge areas that I
investments in training and certification of project would like to draw attention. The nine knowledge
managers? areas are: Project Time Management, Project Cost
Management, Project Quality Management,
The answer is straightforward – the tenets, Project Human Resource Management, Project
principles and practices of PM are easily Communications Management, Project
extendable and applicable to other fields of Integration Management, Project Scope
general management. For instance, if you Management, Project Risk Management, and
examine some of the knowledge areas espoused Project Procurement Management.
by PM – like HR, communication, time
management etc you would see that they have Of the nine knowledge areas it is apparent that
universal impact and would hold good for any the first five focusing on time, cost, quality, HR and
function/initiative/ programme or project that the communication have a universal impact on all
organization is running. facets of general management. Skills in these
areas contribute to the success of a manager
In fact, I would go a step further to vouch for the across any function in an organization. At the
relevance and importance of PM in all facets of life same time the remaining four knowledge areas,
– both personal and professional. The moment while not having a direct impact on management
you have time, people, money and resources to efficiency, do contribute indirectly to effective
juggle you have a project on hand – and good management. A clear case for the relevance and
project management techniques can ensure the need for PM in any business that needs to run and
success of the project. In fact an acquaintance of monitor multiple projects.
mine recently created a work breakdown structure
to successfully plan, manage and execute his Let's delve a little further – and look at the
daughter's wedding! knowledge areas to gain perspective on how they
can impact general management functions in an
Getting back to the business context, let's look at it organization.
from another perspective. Project managers
appreciate and understand the importance of • Project Integration Management spans the
leadership – a trait that has become even more processes and activities needed to identify,
critical in the business environment of the day. define, combine, unify, and coordinate the
Leadership at all levels has become a crucial various processes and project management
business need to differentiate the leaders from the activities within the Project Management
followers, the winners from the followers – and PM process groups. It entails many choices about
delivers on this. resource allocation, making trade-offs among
completing objectives and alternatives, and
The all-pervasive impact of PM stems from the managing the interdependencies among the
basic pedestal that it is built on – namely a project management knowledge areas.