Emerging Professional Series: What is a Project?
Posted by [email protected] on Jul. 7, 2022 / Subscribe 1
WHAT IS A PROJECT?
PROJECT.
A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
A project is a temporary initiative that creates and delivers business value to an organization.
A problem scheduled for solution.
A PROJECT SHOULD...
-
- Have a specific purpose,
- Create unique products, services, or results,
- Drive organizational change, and...
- Have a definite start and finish.
THE FOUR T's of a PROJECT:
Projects are defined based on four concepts:
TIME:
The project has a definite start and finish. In projects, time is limited and “can be envisaged as a linear section of a continuous time-flow that is cut out.”
TASK:
A specific purpose that creates unique products, services, or results.
The task that needs to be completed through the project is the “raison d’être” of the project, it is “the main reason for creating a temporary organization.”
TEAM:
Projects are people driven. People think of ideas for products and services, and we create projects to produce them. People execute these projects, and yet more people use the products and services they make.
As the authors state, “any temporary organization needs to be designed by and around people”. Therefore, the project is “dependent on the will, commitment and ability” of team members. Participating in projects “is normally predefined as being time-limited”. Therefore, team members belong to other teams or departments. These observations influence project work.
TRANSITION:
Enable business value creation.
Drives organizational change and responding to factors acting upon their organization.
Since the purpose of a temporary organization “also contains an element of change”, the concept of transition describes that something needs to be transformed or changed, “before success can be proclaimed.”
Emerging Professional Series: What is a Project? Downloadable Infographic
SOURCES:
Griffiths, Mike: PM Illustrated: A Visual Learner’s Guide to Project Management.
Lundin, R.A.; Söderholm, A. (1995): A Theory of the Temporary Organization. In: Scandinavian Journal of Management 11 (4), pp. 437-455
1 Comments
Jimmy Thai - PMI SD Keynote Speaker
Jul. 7, 2022
Nice alliteration attempt with all T's, but without a budget, it's not a project. Here's a solution in Vietnamese "Ti?n" (means Money). Team only covers labor aspect of project resource. Money is a must for material, facility, equipment. Imagine to PM "Back to the Moon" project with only these 4 T's. Good luck ????
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