When I say projects,

what do you think about? Which projects come to your mind? Well, if you're like me,
you might think of personal projects, like your school assignment, or maybe
a research project that you're engaged in. But these days a lot of us also think
about new product development projects. Let's look at a few examples. Maybe we
think about the development of
a new airplane, like the Airbus 380 or the development of the new
car like the Tesla. A project might be thinking
about a drug development project from molecule to shelf. Or maybe the development
of a new
personal device, like the iPhone. We might also think about a project that
has to do with putting up a website, or a service online, like healthcare.gov. But
some of us might also be
thinking about mega projects. Construction projects. Landmarks that we think about
and
visit so readily. For instance, the Sydney Opera House,
or maybe the pyramids in Egypt. We might also think about recent projects, like
London Heathrow's Terminal Five
construction, T5. Maybe the ongoing project
that we might even go and see that is taking place in New York City
at the site of the World Trade Center. The New York City's new
transportation hub. These are mega projects. But there is a different type of
project
that some of us might be thinking about. How about events or festivals? For
instance, organizing something as
complicated as the FIFA World Cup, or maybe, shooting a film,
from script to cinema. Organizing a festival for thousands and
thousands of movie goers to come and see, something like the Cannes Film Festival.
That's a project. And finally, another example might be
the production of a Broadway show. These are all great examples of projects.
They're very different in nature. Personal projects, new product
development projects, mega project, contra, construction projects,
or events and performances. So what do they all have in common? And why are they
all
considered to be projects? Well, projects all have a specific and
a unique aim. A product or
service that they are going to develop. They are temporary. They have a specific
start and
a date, and an end date. They have a temporary organization. Temporary group of
individuals who are
engaged in that activity associated with that specific project. They require multi-
disciplinary
coordination. Individuals with different set of
expertise from different locations. All coming together for
the purposes of that specific project. They're also constrained by time,
cost, and resources. Let's look at a few formal
definitions of what a project is. This will help us think about
how do we plan projects, how do we execute projects, and
what is the goal in project management? Here's one example of a definition
from the Harvard Business Review. The Harvard Business Review talks
about a unique set of activities, meant to produce a defined outcome
within an established time frame, using specific allocation of resources. A
slightly different definition comes
from the Project Management Institute, where they talk about a project
as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or
service. We see temporary and unique. So if these are common
traits of projects and these are common features that projects
exhibit, what is not a project? What around us that is
not considered a project? Well, here's a few examples of things
that we might want to think about that are not projects. The manufacturing process
of a new car,
or of some type of clothing item. Those are not projects,
those are routine ongoing operations. The routine processing
of certain applications, such as insurance applications, or
job applications, are not projects. They are not temporary, and they do not
have a unique set of individuals that come together for
the purpose of that specific project. What does it matter that we clarify what
is a project and what is not a project? Well, there are several
reasons why it's important. First, if we define a project properly, then we can
find the correct tools to
use when we plan and execute projects. In addition, projects and processes,
they might have different objectives. And therefore, we're going to measure
their success on different criteria. Finally, all the projects have the feature
that they are supposedly unique. They have certain traits that come
with being unique and being temporary. And we can cater for those and
we can plan accordingly. And so today we saw what common
features all projects have, what is not a project and why it is
important to distinguish between the two.