Project management means different things to different people. In OR/MS, it has traditionally been almost exclusively concerned with technical aspects using PERT/CPM where the objective is to complete the project on time with an efficient use of resources. Outside of OR/MS, there has been much more of a concern with human aspects: the management of a group of people who are engaged in a project. In recent years, it would seem that this has increasingly become a concern of operations researchers, and particularly managers of OR/MS groups.
Organizational structure plays an important role in project management. The increasing need for fast response has motivated both the trend to flatter organizational structures and much of the recent thinking about project management (Handy, 1993). OR/ MS expertise is becoming more dispersed within organizations: for instance, project teams may include an OR/MS person, but less frequently do exclusively OR/MS project teams exist.
The management of a...
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© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Rand, G.K. (2001). Project management. In: Gass, S.I., Harris, C.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-0611-X_817
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-0611-X_817
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