What distinguishes a project from everyday operations, and how can its activities be coordinated? This 2000 edition begins with those foundational questions, defining projects as temporary endeavors that create unique products or services. It connects project work to organizational strategy while emphasizing that teams must decide which practices suit their particular circumstances. The opening framework addresses project phases, life cycles, stakeholders, organizational influences, general management skills, and social, economic, and environmental conditions. It then examines how initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing processes interact. A mapping brings together thirty-nine processes, five process groups, and nine knowledge areas, helping readers understand the relationships between individual management activities. The guide proceeds through integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, and procurement management. Topics include developing and executing project plans, controlling changes, defining and verifying scope, sequencing activities, estimating durations, preparing budgets, developing teams, reporting performance, and administering contracts. Its listed illustrations include work breakdown structures, network diagrams, Gantt charts, responsibility matrices, quality control charts, and risk analysis tools. The preface identifies expanded coverage of earned value management and a rewritten risk chapter covering planning, identification, qualitative and quantitative analysis, response planning, and monitoring. Appendices address standards development, the guide’s evolution, application extensions, and further information. A glossary and index support reference use, reinforcing the book’s purpose of establishing shared terminology for project professionals, educators, stakeholders, and teams.