Project Management is the discipline of defining and achieving targets while
optimizing the use of resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space,
etc) over the course of a project (a set of activities of finite duration).
Project Management is quite often the province and responsibility of an
individual project manager. This individual seldom participates directly in the
activities that produce the end result, but rather strives to maintain the
progress and productive mutual interaction of various parties in such a way that
overall risk of failure is reduced.
In contrast to on-going, functional work, a project is "a temporary endeavor
undertaken to create a unique product or service." The duration of a project is
the time from its start to its completion, which can take days, weeks, months or
even years. Typical projects include the engineering and construction of various
public or consumer products, including buildings, vehicles, electronic devices,
and computer software.
In recent years, the Project Management discipline has been applied to
Marketing and Advertising endeavors as they become more technologically oriented
and multiple communication channels become part of the marketing mix.
