What are Project Management services?

In the book Services Marketing, the authors define ‘Services’ as”… deeds, processes, and performances.” They note that services “…include all economic activities whose output is not [always] a physical product or construction, … generally consumed at the time produced, and provide value in forms that are essentially intangible concerns of [the] first purchaser.” (Zeithaml & Bitner 1996).

The Project Management Institute classifies project management activities according to nine knowledge practice areas . Each area is comprised of related processes and each of these areas meets Zeithaml and Bitner’s definition of services. The list below provides a brief description of each of the nine services or knowledge areas.


1. Project Integration Management:
Activities related to planning and executing the project as an integrated whole including managing changes.


2. Project Scope Management:
Activities related to defining and maintaining the boundaries of the project.


3. Project Schedule Management:
Activities relating to managing time.


4. Project Communication Management:
Activities relating to establishing and ensuring communications with project stakeholders.


5. Project Cost Management:
Budgeting activities.


6. Project Human Resource Management:
Activities related to managing people.


7. Project Quality Management:
Activities related to measuring performance and variance.


8. Project Risk Management:
Activities related to identifying, qualifying, quantifying, and dealing with uncertainty.


9. Project Procurement Management
Activities related to vendor selection and supervision.


These nine Project Management knowledge practice areas can be considered primary services because they are directly provisioned in the course of managing projects. However, there are also secondary services which are often also provided for the support of project management but are not considered project management knowledge practice areas per-se. Secondary Project Management services generally relate to a “Program” entity which is a context for managing collections of one or more projects. Examples of secondary services include; Project Portfolio Management, Project Management Training, Project Governance, Business Analysis, and other supporting services.

I invite you to contribute your case studies as comments to this post, that can help us better understand how each of the nine primary services are provided in real-life situations.


REFERENCES

Zeithhaml, V.A. and Bitner M.J. (1996). Services Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill.