INTERNATIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Guilherme Gomes
March 21, 2014

Summary: Chapter 01
Projects in Contemporary Organizations

This chapter introduced the Project Management, talking about how it was developed in the early
days from the military organization and how it became more popular heading to most big companies
nowadays. This fact is mostly explained because of three mayor events: (1) the expansion of human
technology, (2) the growing demand for more technological and complexes products, and (3) the
evolution of the markets competition. In other words, "projects increase in size and complexity because
the more we can do, the more we try to do.
After talking about PM's development, it starts talking about the Project Management itself. There
direct objectives of the PM are: (1) to achieve high performance (escope), (2) to minimize time, and (3) to
minimize costs. In order to achieve success, the project must have four dimensions (1) project efciency,
(2) impact on the customer, (3) business impact on the organization, and (4) open new opportunities for
the future.
Then, it dened the word project, meaning basically a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product or service. It also talks about some of the projects characteristics, e.g.: performance,
lifecycle within a due date, interdependencies, resources and conicts.
It also discussed the need for project management, and its responsibilities regarding the client and
the environment in which the project is taking place; the importance of identifying and correcting a
problem at an early date; make decisions concerning project goals conicts, and ensure optimal
performance in all levels of the project.
Finally, Chapter 01 described the project life cycle, explaining that all projects go trough similar
stages on the path from origin to completion. It also explains that usually, if you consider the resources
expended per unit of time, you will see that minimal effort is required at the beginning, when the
project concepts being developed and subjected to project selection processes. After that, work gets
under way and momentum quickly builds, continuing until the end is in sight.
Reference:
MEREDITH, Jack R.; MANTEL JUNIOR, Samuel J. Project Management: A Managerial
Approach. 7. ed. USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009.
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