Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is often closely related to and sometimes conflated with Program management.

A project is a finite endeavor--having specific start and completion dates--undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. This finite characteristic of projects stands in contrast to processes, or operations--which is repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services. 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.

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the preconceived 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.

History of project management

thumb|240px|Roman Soldiers Building a Fortress, Trajan's Column 113 .D. Project management has been practiced since early civilization. Until 1900 civil engineering projects were generally managed by creative architects and engineers themself, among those for example Christopher Wren (1632–1723) , Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) It has been since the 1950s, that organizations started applying systemic project management tools and techniques to complex projects. Young-Hoon Kwak (2005). "A brief history of Project Management". In: The story of managing projects. Elias G. Carayannis et al. 9eds), Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 1567205062

The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern Project Management era. Project management was formally recognized as a distinct discipline arising from the management discipline. David I. Cleland, Roland Gareis (2006). Global project management handbook. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. ISBN 0071460454. p.1-4": Project management was formally recognized in the 1950s as a distinct discipline arising from the management discipline. Again, in the United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt Charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two mathematical project scheduling models were developed. The "Critical Path Method" (CPM) developed in a joint venture by both DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. And the "Program Evaluation and Review Technique" or PERT, developed by Booz-Allen & Hamilton as part of the United States Navy's (in conjunction with the Lockheed Corporation) Polaris missile submarine program; These mathematical techniques quickly spread into many private enterprises.