If you were mingling in a business meeting and someone introduced themselves as a Project Manager, would you really know what they did? It seems to be a highly important and senior job, but the truth is: we're all project managers, it's just that many of us don't claim it as our day job. It's a prized professional skill if you can master it properly, and it's easier than you think.

One of the most popular systems for Project Management is called "PRINCE" (now updated to "PRINCE2"). What used to be a system for managing IT and telecommunications projects is pretty much the industry standard in business. Don't worry, you don't have to learn this system - it's too detailed for this article - but we'll go through the basics of how to manage a project using similar principles to 'PRINCE'.

Let's say, for example, you want to design a website. Regardless of the content, a website is a project that you must manage in order for it to work and be a success.

Stage 1: Planning, and Startup

Now that you have a project, you're going to have to define what it is. In our website example, you could decide whether it's a commercial venture for selling your old CDs, photos of your family on holiday, or something more ambitious. Define the scope of the project. What is your website for? Who is your audience? Simply by making these decisions - you've become the project manager!

Stage 2: Initiating and Directing the Project

You know what you want - so how much is it going to cost? You need to define a budget and a timescale for your website, and to start appointing some project members. A website designer is an obvious choice, or if you're doing it yourself on Dreamweaver, you need to think about how much time it will take. Will you need to buy graphics for it? Do you need to clear copyright for anything you're going to use?

What will your (www) domain name be? At this early stage of planning, after some research and assessment, you can even decide that you don't want to go ahead with the project. Let's hope you do, to get to...

Stage 3: Controlling and Managing the Project

When the project is underway, the project manager keeps tabs on what is happening, to make sure that all team members are happy (is your website designer struggling? Have you kept them informed of your needs? Will you authorise him or her to do a bit more work for a bit more money? Will this send you over budget?).

The job of Project Manager gets harder as the number of people and elements you're dealing with increases (it's why the entrants of "The Apprentice" all try to fire the Project Manager!). It's a big responsibility, and in a business world, it can be a stressful and complex one. The trick is to break down your time and the stages of the project. Try not to leap ahead - you can't design the site before you've bought the domain name and the webspace, for example.

Stage 4: Managing Delivery, and Closing the Project

Your website should be considered "delivered" when it's live on the internet, working fine, and your staff (if you have any, such as the designer) are paid and decommissioned. Because a website usually needs updating, maintenance is ongoing and you can't truly "close" the site, but you can close the project that brought it into being.

In business, one project will usually lead to another - in this example, the next step would be to start a new project on how you're going to submit your site to search engines, or perhaps email your family members telling them that their pictures are up! Business itself is just a world of ongoing projects - of planning, managing, delivery, closure, then back to the start of the circle again to keep the money rolling in.

Broken down into these stages, it seems much simpler and will help you project manage more effectively. After reading this article, if you meet a Project Manager, you'll understand just what a wonderful skill they have - and don't forget to tell your own business colleagues that it's a skill you now realise you have, too!