What exactly is a project? A project is something that is temporary and unique, which could literally mean anything from the building of the Colosseum in Rome all the way to building a new data center or upgrading hardware or software for your organization. A project doesn't necessarily have to produce anything that's tangible. It could be a product, service, or result. You may very well be updating a process in your organization or perhaps reorganizing your help desk. These would be considered projects as well.

Businesses are concerned with making money and often projects are undertaken for that very reason, whether it's to develop a new product, service, or result or to simply improve business practices to save the organization some money.

There are two phrases that define a project:

1. Temporary
2. Unique

Much of your day-to-day lives running projects will be significantly impacted by your organizational processes and the culture of your organization. That could be based on your industry, what regulatory compliance is necessary, or simply because of how your organization chooses to run things.

The biggest impact on how these processes evolve is based mostly on how your organization is structured. Some structures are better than others for projects and sometimes trying to implement new best practices can be a bit painful due to your organizational influences.

I often look at organizational processes as the handbook of how they do things at an organization. The rules, best practices, and set processes. The enterprise environment is when you go to lunch with someone and they tell you how it really is! The organizational culture, the software...

There are many reasons why an organization would decide to undertake a project. As mentioned earlier, businesses are concerned with making money, but they are also known to run projects for the greater good.

The categories of why projects may occur include the following:

• Market demand
• Business need or opportunity
• Requests from customers
• Advances in technology
• Legal or regulatory compliance
• Environmental considerations
• Social need

Regardless of the reason why a project may occur, businesses need to validate their reasoning for taking on a project and determine whether it is feasible and fiscally healthy to do so. Usually in the first few stages of determining what project to undertake and how it can help align to the organization's strategic plan, there are numerous decisions to make about which project to select and how much to spend.

There are 10 areas of expertise or knowledge that can be utilized on most, if not all, projects. The 10 project-management knowledge areas each contain specific processes, input, tools and techniques, and output that relate to specific areas of the project. These knowledge areas come from the Project Management Body of Knowledge or the PMBOK^® Guide – 6th edition.

You will cover a variety of best practices and processes from their related knowledge areas as you move through this guide. This is just an overview of each knowledge area and its role in project management. As you go through the overview, ask yourself which of these knowledge areas are part of your day-to-day projects that would need to be planned for, executed, monitored, and controlled.

Some project managers only work with the core constraints of scope, time, and cost...

It's probably pretty easy to tell that there is a lot involved in being a project manager. I can tell you after many years as a project manager, there are days when I question the sanity of my stakeholders and, quite frankly, my own. However, the beauty of being a project manager is that we have the ability to work with different kinds of people, produce results, and essentially keep the entire ship sailing straight. It doesn't always work out like that of course, but in a perfect world, we have all the best practices, tools and techniques, and the right attitude to get to the finish line.

The role of the project manager includes the following:

• Managing the project team
• Solving problems
• Managing communications across multiple stakeholders
• Identifying and analyzing the right requirements for scope
• Creating and managing a budget and a schedule...

In this chapter, you learned about how projects are defined based on different organizational structures as well as different project-selection techniques that are used to initiate a project.

Then you reviewed the 10 different knowledge areas that influence unique projects as well as the role of the project manager. This information is important as a stepping stone or baseline that can lead to managing a project effectively based on the circumstances of the organization and your leadership skills as a project manager. In Chapter 3, Project Roles and Responsibilities, you will review the different roles and responsibilities of a variety of stakeholders. This is necessary information for exam considerations as well as your real-world projects.

1. What is the definition of a project? Choose all that apply.
   • A group of related programs
   • A temporary endeavor
   • Managed in a coordinated fashion
   • Produces a unique product service or result
   • Managed by a project manager
2. What is the definition of a program?
   • A group of unrelated projects
   • Temporary and unique
   • A type of organizational structure
   • A group of projects managed in a coordinated fashion
3. Which of the following represents a portfolio?
   • A group of unrelated projects and programs
   • A group of related projects and portfolios
   • A program and multiple projects
   • None of the above
4. You are helping your manager expedite a project in your department while still working on your day-to-day work. What type of organizational dynamic are you working in?
   • Matrix
   • Project-based
   • Functional
   • Composite
5. Which of the following are considered the best organizational structures for project...