Project Management Guide - What is a Project?

Surprisingly, this is a question which isn't asked enough by aspiring project managers. Everyone thinks they know the answer, but do they really? Let's look at a few examples:

1. You have just started a new management job. Your company produces a speciality good, and you have to oversee the manufacturing process, and make sure as many are produced as possible.
2. You have just joined a new company. Your first assignment is to ensure every desk in the office gets a new computer on it within 12 months.
3. Your next assignment is to deliver the roll-out of a new communications infrastructure, and maintain it afterwards.

Before we decide, let's have a look at a few definitions that are out there. The Project Management Institute says in their guide A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge that "a project consists of a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result." The definition used in PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments - a popular project management methodology in the UK and Europe) says a project "is a management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case."

In plain English, a project begins to achieve an aim, and finishes when that aim is achieved. The aim can be creating a new product, delivering a particular item, or even just achieving a particular goal. The important thing to remember is that projects are temporary. They do not consist of the same task done over and over, indefinitely.

Given these definitions, we can now decide which of the examples given above are actually projects.

Number 1 is not a project. You will be managing a process that already exists. However, if, for example, you were tasked with coming up with a way to make the process 25% more efficient, doing that task would be a project.

Number 2 is a project. You can see it has a clear aim - to put a new computer on every desk. In addition, it has a constraint, because it all has to be done within 12 months.

Number 3 is a project - at first. Rolling out the new communications infrastructure is a project, with the aim of delivering that infrastructure. Maintaining the infrastructure afterwards is not a project. However, you may want to write the procedures and protocols for maintaining the infrastructure in the delivery project, as an additional product.

The third case is a classic example of how project management can come into many jobs. It is easy to imagine, for example, an IT manager having to project manage the roll-out of the infrastructure, in addition to the day job of maintaining it at the end. If you are in this sort of situation, it is important to realise you need to clearly define what is part of your project, and what isn't - otherwise your precious project resource may start to get pulled onto day to day tasks, instead of being focussed on delivery.

So now we know what a project is: An endeavour begun to achieve a defined goal, that continues only until it reaches that goal. A project is temporary, with defined goals.

Trevor Roberts runs his own project management consultancy, and has worked as a project manager for business and government. He also writes http://www.projectmanagementguide.org where he aims to help you learn more about project management.

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