What Is a Project?
A project is a temporary endeavor that consumes resources and is undertaken to produce a unique deliverable (product, service or result).
There are three important elements in the above definition:
- A project is temporary, in that it has a definite start and end date
- A project will consume material, financial and personnel resources
- The unique nature of the deliverable is an important characteristic of a project. A project may have repetitive elements yet still be unique. For example, every aircraft will have recurring elements (e.g., wings, fuselage, engines, etc.); however, every individual model of airplane will be unique.
Projects vs. Operations
Organizations perform work to accomplish certain objectives. This work may be divided into two categories: projects and operations.
Projects
- A project will achieve its objective and terminate
- A project will have a definite end, even though the duration may be many years
- Projects are generally undertaken to achieve some strategic objective
Operations
- Operations will continue as long as the business is viable
- Operations are ongoing; however, they may adopt a new set of objectives
- Operations are conducted to sustain the business
The Project’s Role in Strategic Objectives
Projects provide a platform to organize activities that fall outside of normal operational limits. For this reason, projects are often utilized to further strategic objectives. Strategic considerations for which a project might be suitable include:
- Market demand
- Organizational need
- Customer request
- Technological advance
- Legal requirement
Project Lifecycle
To better manage a project, it is usually divided into phases, cumulatively known as the project lifecycle. Transition from one phase to the next consists of the completion of some deliverable (product, service or result). Deliverables are reviewed and approved before the beginning of the next phase. This allows the project team and stakeholders the chance to review the direction and performance of the project before it can proceed.
RPM Lifecycles
Research Project Management (RPM) manages multiple types of projects, from events to strategic planning. Because of the variety of projects within RPM, we use three separate lifecycles to manage events, process improvement and other standard projects. Events and process-improvement projects have their own unique lifecycle; all other projects follow the standard project lifecycle.
See the Standard, Events and Process Improvement RPM lifecycles (PDF).