March 13, 2024 · 5 min read
What exactly is a project, and what is not? For managers, it's crucial to understand. Imagine your boss says: Here's a project. Do it. The first thing every manager should start with is to assess whether this is truly a project, or if it's just considered one by the management.
According to the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), a project is described as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create unique products, services, or results within defined constraints, such as time, budget, and resources. However, this definition doesn’t always make it easy to separate a project from non-project activities.
In practice, a project is characterized not only by time constraints and resource availability but also by a high degree of uncertainty. Unlike ongoing operations, projects have a defined beginning and end, a clear objective, and produce unique results.
But what if there's high uncertainty but no definite end? In such cases, project management approaches can still be used, but they typically become inefficient. It's better to apply product management approaches like Scrum.
If project management is about accomplishing something complex within constraints, then product management is when there are no critical constraints but high uncertainty.
For example, we're developing Google Maps. In Google's case, budget constraints are likely less critical, especially compared to contracting with a customer or being a significantly smaller company. Is it important for Google to meet deadlines? Probably not, as a few months' delays are also not critical. What's significant is making the product perfect, ensuring people like it, and avoiding user churn. There's no pronounced end, but uncertainty exists, and we're fully focused on the content, making product approaches more logical.
Another case, which is actually the antithesis of project management, is operations management, like the assembly line in car manufacturing. This is not a project at all. There's no time constraint, no high uncertainty, and tasks repeat day after day. Activities can be broken down into simple, understandable instructions. These enterprises are easy to manage, and operational managers are not needed in large numbers; even one person can manage 500–700 people. While in IT, a team might consist of 10 — max 20 people.
However, if an enterprise begins to expand or introduces new products, elements of project activity emerge, as specific time and resource constraints appear, and tasks become unique, requiring project management.
Every project has clear objectives, a guiding light for the team. These objectives answer the question: What are we trying to achieve? They’re specific, measurable, and central to the project’s purpose.
What is a project deliverable? Project deliverables, on the other hand, are the tangible results produced along the way. Each deliverable is like a landmark in a journey, whether it’s a report, a prototype, or the final product itself. Deliverables mark progress and bring the project closer to its ultimate goal.
When you look at the range of projects that organizations tackle, they can appear wildly different. Each project is unique in purpose and structure, but most fall into categories defined by their funding sources, industry focus, and management methodologies.
The way a project is funded can shape everything from its scope to its urgency. Projects may be:
If we search for a Project Manager position without limiting the industry, we’ll find that a significant portion of such vacancies are across three sectors: IT, construction, and applied science. Why is that? In these fields, tasks are bound by time, budget, and resource constraints and are often associated with high uncertainty. For example, developing toothpaste in applied science involves a clear goal but no straightforward path, introducing unknowns. In software development, goals often evolve, requiring flexibility.
Construction might initially seem different because it typically involves standard projects. Yet, due to the large number of participants needing coordination, high uncertainty remains. In contrast to smaller IT or research teams, construction teams can consist of hundreds of people, making coordination complex and unpredictable.
How a project is managed often depends on its complexity and flexibility needs. Methodologies act like different roads to the same destination:
Some projects are so unique they warrant their own labels:
Documentation in project management is like a compass, keeping teams on course while ensuring accountability. Successful projects depend on these essential documents:
Thus, the key to understanding project meaning lies in the combination of definitive ends and high uncertainty. If a task has clear time constraints and is associated with unknowns that make its completion complex and unpredictable, it's most likely a project and project management approaches should be applied. Otherwise, if a task is regular and predictable, or does not have a clear time constraint, it likely does not fall under project activities.