ForewordFor over two decades, experts in the practice of project management from around the world have been trying to reach some agreement on the essentials of project management practices that are prerequisites to a successful outcome. That is, those things that should be in place from the beginning of a project if abject failure is to be avoided. While their presence does not necessarily guarantee success, their absence is unlikely to allow for delivery of the desired results. In the era of hashtags and internet searches, many of these essential concepts have become key words that keep showing in articles, books and project documents. However, it appears that a major barrier to agreement is the fact that several of these key words are commonly used by different people to mean different things in different contexts. They really should know better. Consequently, some readers may not agree with definitions provided here, especially if they differ from the common parlance that they are used to. Nevertheless, readers are requested to pay close attention to the definitions provided here, as well as the way the words are used, to give this paper some order and structure. This paper was instigated at the suggestion of my good friend George Jucan, PMP,[1] who has also reviewed several drafts and making suggestions that added immeasurably to this paper's contents.
1. George Jucan, MBA PMP CMP, speaker / consultant / author - enabling organizational performance through project, program and portfolio management. Contact gjucan@OPEnablers.net.
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