The Purpose of the Project Management Institute, Essay Example

The Project Management Institute allows for the collaboration and concentration of project management in one centralized location. The core function of PMI is to create an environment for project manager’s to gain knowledge, expertise and structure. It also provides a range of services including volunteer opportunities to broaden or deepen the project manager’s experience, develops standards to continually improve the project management best practices and maintains the integrity of the project management community’s credentials.

The world of project management revolves around the basis of a project and its phases. A project is by definition a temporary endeavor to produce a unique deliverable at the conclusion of the endeavor (PMI 2008). Just as the foundation of a house supports the entire home to stand the test of time the definition of the scope of a project establishes the entire trajectory of the project and determines what resources and schedule will be needed to accomplish all of the requirements that constitute the scope. The planning phase of project management includes developing the project management plan, collecting the requirements, defining the scope, assigning resources in a work breakdown structure and defining the activities. Planning in a project establishes the ground work for the entire project’s lifecycle and will inherently become the foundation for success or failure when the project comes to a close. In order to understand what is to be delivered at the end of a project there must be boundaries and guidelines established to set the parameters or scope of the project. Planning a project revolves around defining what needs to be accomplished and how it will be accomplished. Defining scope is the process of determining a common understanding of what the project will include in or exclude out of the final deliverable (Dobson, 2004).

References

Dobson, M. (2004). The triple constraints in project management. Vienna, VA: ManagementConcepts.

Gray, C. F., & Larson, E. W. (2011). Project management: The managerial process (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Templar, R., Herring, J. J., Thompson, L., & Fadem, T. J. (2012). Negotiating to win: strategies and skills for every situation (collection). FT Press. Retrieved from: http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=tPBSj1WlQpIC&oi=fnd&pg=PT1&dq=The+Truth+About+Negotiations+by+Leigh+L.+Thompson&ots=CrLodMnsdL&sig=Lgik2nUr2f21s8wEI_9SsPtNk5w

Project Management Institute, P. M. (2008). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. (4th ed.). Newtown Square: Project Management Inst.