• The top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.
• There are 31 billion google searches every month.
• The number of text messages sent and received each day exceeds the total population of the planet.
• A week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.

Do we work out deadlines before conceptualising a project, or do we conceptualise a project then give a deadline accordingly, who are the people responsible for setting deadlines, is it the client? is it the Project manager? None of the above would be my answer, the people giving the deadline is the production who will be executing the project. This is where quality and time start becoming a reality, The production will know how long it will take to execute the project and all issues pertaining to the project and can be dealt with accordingly, Do we go to car dealership to buy a new car and expect it the same day, No, we all know that factors pertaining to purchasing the car which will include getting insurance quotes, finance, is it the correct colour, do they have in stock, is the price right, upon all of that, there is question of will it all be approved?

As we all know time cannot be changed it is a set medium to which we all abide by. Quality is something we can change given the correct amount of time to do the project, When something changes with-in the project, the same deadline cannot not be expected as we now have to compensate for that bump in the road, if your insurance is declined, can we really expect to drive a car off the showroom floor at the same time we expected, to an extent yes, but if it were declined at 5 in the afternoon, expectations of getting the next morning are very slim, unless you can get 24 our insurance, the expectation has to change.

Well at the end of the day it’s who can do it better and faster, But it means nothing if you can meet a deadline but is not a full proof solution, all it means you bought a Tata for the price of a ferrari. Everybody’s expectation will be high but reality will tell a different story.

here are some graphs and insight to Time vs. Quality and expectations on loss and profit. they use students as an example, but I suppose you can still adapt it to the working world. http://www.planetizen.com/node/35866

What is Project Management?

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.

A project is an undertaken to create a unique product or service which brings about beneficial change or added value, having specific start and completion dates. This characteristic of projects stands in sharp contrast to processes, or operations, which are permanent or semi-permanent functional work to repetitively produce the same product or service. In practice, the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management philosophy, which is the subject of this article.

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the project constraints. Typical constraints are scope, time and budget. The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives. A project is a carefully defined set of activities that use resources (money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, motivation, etc.) to achieve the project goals and objectives.

Next week we will look at different Project Management Approaches that will help you to establish which approach can work for your specific business need.