Ø      Project management processes - describe, organize, and complete the work of the project.

Ø      Product oriented processes - specify and create the project’s product. Product oriented processes are typically defined by the project life cycle

IPECC

Project management processes can be organized into five groups of one or more processes each:

1. Initiating processes—authorizing the project or phase.
2. Planning processes—defining and refining objectives and selecting the best of the alternative  courses of action to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to address.
3. Executing processes—coordinating people and other resources to carry out the plan.
4. Controlling processes—ensuring that project objectives are met by monitoring and measuring progress regularly to identify variances from plan so that corrective action can be taken when necessary.

Closing processes—formalizing acceptance of the project or phase and bringing it to an orderly end.

According to the MPM and IPMC:

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.

A project exists only after a decision has been made to address a specific business need, either internal or external (customer need) to the organization, funding is available to support its execution, and measurable goals and objectives are well defined. Without knowing the expected results, quality level or capability of the end product, a project is difficult to plan, execute or conclude.

A project is temporary in that there is a defined start (the decision to proceed) and a defined end (the achievement of the goals and objectives). Ongoing business or maintenance operations are not projects. Process improvement efforts that result in better business processes or more efficient operations can be defined as projects.

Figure 0.1 depicts the process flow of a project.

: Project Process Flow