• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Project Management Knowledge

Simply explained by a PMI-certified Project Manager

  • Home
  • Acronyms and Abbreviations
  • Definitions
  • About the Author
  • Deutsch
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Definitions / A / Authority

Authority

Authority is a noun that can be defined generally in a number of unique, yet related, ways. First, it can refer to a specific party that has the power or right to enforce decisions, laws, or rulings. Police officers, for example, are considered to be “authorities”. In many cases it can refer to the parties that actually have the power to make these decisions, laws, and rulings, and an example of authority in this sense can be seen in federal, state, and local judges. Authority can also refer to the power that may be assigned from one person to another to make specific decisions, such as in the example, “I have assigned to my lawyer the authority to make that decision.”In the area of project management, authority refers similarly to a person, or group or people, who have the power or right to make key decisions in the process of project planning and/or execution. These rights may include, but not necessarily be limited to, acts of application of project resources, making expenditures, and offering approvals.

This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.

Related Articles:

 
  • Critical Activity  The term critical activity refers to any particular schedule activity that happens to be part of a critical path that...
  •  
  • Projectized Organization  When attempting to determine exactly how an organization fits in to the grand scheme of the organization and analysis as...
  •  
  • Delegate Without Losing Control  The old saying, “If you want something done right, do it yourself,” does not always ring true when it comes...
  •  
  • Authority And Accountability In Project Management  The environment created by a specific corporate culture can have a significant impact on project management outcomes. Fully understanding how...
  •  
  • U    Get free Project Management updates!...
  • Primary Sidebar

    Dear Visitor, I am a PMP (Project Management Professional), certified by the Project Management Institute since 2004. I have been managing dozens of projects, small and huge, successful and unsuccessful. This site is supposed to help you learn the required vocabulary of the project management world. Please feel free to check my certification status or to learn more about me.

    Copyright © 2021

    • Privacy Policy