WHAT IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT?
Managing a project in an organization is imperative and something that has to be carried out with cautions, plans and excruciating level of precision. Managing the operation of an industry project, technically known as “Project Management”, generates a little vagueness in the overall sense of the word but it involves many managerial and technical processes that it had acquired a status of field of academic study and exploration. Roughly, it is an amalgamation of fundamentally distinct fields of interest that involve technical ideas and business practices. The idea of incorporating skills for managing industry projects into a full grown academic course is relatively new and was mainly triggered by industrial revolution and necessity of handling, managing and controlling various aspects of a project. According to standard ‘text-book definition’ of Project Management, it is a process that manages the planning, execution and monitoring a specific project to meet organizational objectives respecting the constraints given in terms of time, allocation of funds and availability of resources. With the emergence of different kinds of industries, it has become essential to be efficient with nitty-gritties of project management, specifically at a managerial level. Although, the idea of project management is applicable for any kind of project undertaken in any organization, but, of course, it is tailor-made considering several organization – level objectives, restrictions like availability of resources and deadlines. Hence, students who undergo Master’s in Project Management go through details of essential aspects of conducting business. It is the best career option who wishes to learn and understand the projects and strategies within an organization.
Almost all major countries have Project Management as their university level course. Major examples include USA, Australia, Germany, Ireland and Canada. Most of the countries do offer two year Master’s program in Project Management in their business or management schools. Certification courses are also offered by major institutions around the world. In US, specifically, when this kind of course is considered as STEM designated, a student enjoys 3 year OPT period after the course. This degree at university level emphasizes planning and design skills that are specifically required in project based organizations and encourages students to build on their technical background.
Young graduates with Master’s degree of Project management will be able to find opportunities as project coordinators, project analysis, industrial production managers, administrative managers etc. where manufacturing and construction, information services and publishing, finances and insurance are already leading sectors in the project management field. It is estimated that almost 22 Million new project management roles will be added globally within 2027. Increasingly, the professional opportunities in this field is being more and more lucrative. It is also estimated that in 2017, the median annualized salary of project managers was $112K. Typically, in this type of course, theoretical and practical expositions of various details of project management like fundamental of project management, Organizational and Behavioral concepts, Leadership development and other essentials of project management like practices, risk, scope, evaluation, assessment and finance are taught. The courses on Project Management is designed in collaboration with industry experts to develop the competencies of their practicing project managers. They offer blend of technical and sociocultural skill development program. After the completion of such courses, the young graduates will be able to make informed decision based on strategic and operational principles. A lot of innovations are being made to make the course structure more industry friendly and suitable for modern industry needs. We wish, looking at the rapid progress of this kind of course, project management will gain more momentum and values in the years to come.
Mr. Nilanjan Dasgupta
Sr. Counsellor
