Engineering Project Management
"Engineering" in general is the art and science of building things swiftly, correctly, durably, and in a final form that is easily maintained. Every thing is finite; it has a beginning and an end. Therefore its building has a beginning and an end. Work that has both a beginning and an end is a project, and calls for project management. Engineering project management applies to everything from construction engineering to software engineering project management.
Engineering project management must bring together resources from many disciplines. For example, a building construction project may require structural engineering; mechanical engineering; heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning engineering; environmental engineering; and so on. While the people who do each sort of engineering may speak entirely different specialized jargons, they can be united by a common understanding of engineering project management principles. That is why engineering project management is a fundamental component of every type of engineer's education. It allows one to work cohesively with other engineers on projects. Engineering and project management go hand in hand.
Software engineering applies engineering and project management principles to the problem of creating software, particularly large software projects containing millions of lines of code. Such projects consist of modules which can be assigned to various teams of specialists such as database engineers, user interface engineers, and so on. Software engineering project management involves the building of a system of software components, and so the generic term "system engineering" has come to mean "software system engineering" unless otherwise qualified.
Software engineering and project management is a very complex job. Software developers may be scattered across continents working for many different companies. Software engineers may have different design philosophies. The software engineering project manager must set the standards and rules to which all members of every subcontracting team will adhere in order to create software modules which work together and can be maintained by later generations of software developers.
Software engineering project management software is generally used to develop the specifications of each component of a software project, track who is assigned to developing modules, and the progress of each module. Such software makes engineering project management of all kinds not only easier but actually possible. It keeps track of the many sub-tasks, people, documents, deadlines, etc., that must all come together on time to make a successful software engineering project.