Overview

Before moving onto the day-to-day practicalities of project management, this section looks at the wider context in which projects happen. It starts by asking you to think about the forces in the outside environment which led to your project happening. The section goes on to discuss how projects fit into organizations and considers the legal, ethical and financial issues which may influence you.

When you have finished this section, you should have a deeper understanding of why projects are organized and resourced in the way they are. You should also be in a stronger position to argue for the resources that you need.

We consider:

• the outside environment

• working within the organizational framework

• managing change

• ethics

• financial issues

• the legal framework.