What project management actually protects

Coordination is often described in terms of time and money, but those are outcomes rather than objectives. The thing worth defending is the intent — the proportions, materials and details that made the project worth building in the first place.

That means the drawings, the specification, the procurement and the site all need to agree. When they drift apart, the loss shows up quietly: a substitute material here, a simplified junction there, and the building slowly becomes something else.

Good management is mostly the discipline of noticing early and resolving in one place, so that a decision made in a meeting is reflected everywhere it matters.