Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints. So, Project management is important because it ensures what is being delivered, is right, and will deliver real value against the business opportunity.
Project management is also important because it brings leadership and direction to projects. Without project management, a team can be like a ship without a rudder; moving but without direction, control or purpose. Leadership allows and enables a team to do their best work.
Project management provides leadership and vision, motivation, removing roadblocks, coaching and inspiring the team to do their best work. Project management is important because it ensures there’s a proper plan for executing on strategic goals. Where project management is left to the team to work out by themselves, you’ll find teams work without proper briefs, projects lack focus, can have vague or nebulous objectives, and leave the team not quite sure what they’re supposed to be doing, or why.
Project management is important because it ensures proper expectations are set around what can be delivered, by when, and for how much. Without proper project management, budget estimates and project delivery timelines can be set that are over-ambitious or lacking in analogous estimating insight from similar projects. Ultimately this means without good project management, projects get delivered late, and over budget.
Read more about Project Management Methods, Methodologies and Frameworks