1.2 What is a Project?

Project are often implementend as a means of achieving an organization's strategic plan. Organizations perform work. Work generally involves either operations or projects, although the two may overlap. Operations and projects share many characteristic; for example, they are:

   Performed by people.

   Constrained by limited resources.

   Planned, executed, and controlled.

  Operations and projects differ primarily in that operations are ongoing and repetitive while projects are temporary and unique. A project can thus be defined in terms of its distinctive characteristics—a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. Unique means that the product or service is different in some distinguishing way from all similar products or services. For many organizations, projects are a means to respond to those requests that cannot be addressed within the organization's normal operational limits.
  Projects are undertaken at all levels of the organization. They may involve a single person or many thousands. Their duration ranges from a few weeks to more than five years. Projects may involve a single unit of one organization or may cross organizational boundaries as in joint ventures and partnering. Projects are critical to the realization of the performing organization's business strategy because projects are a means by which strategy is implemented. Examples of projects include:

   Developing a new product or service.

   Effecting a change in structure, staffing, or style of an organization.

   Designing a new transportation vehicle.

   Developing or acquiring a new or modified information system.

   Constructing a building or facility.

   Running a campaign for political office.

   Building a water system for a community in a developing country.

   Implementing a new business procedure or process.

1.2.1 Temporary
Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. The end is reached when the project's objectives have been achieved, or when it becomes clear that the project objectives will not or cannot be met, or the need for the project no longer exists and the project is terminated. Temporary does not necessarily mean short in duration; many projects last for several years. In every case, however, the duration of a project is finite; projects are not ongoing efforts.
  In addition, temporary does not generally apply to the product or service created by the project. Projects may often have intended and unintended social, economic, and environmental impacts that far outlast the projects themselves. Most projects are undertaken to create a lasting result. For example, a project to erect a national monument will create a result expected to last centuries. A series of project and/or complementary projects in parallel may be required to achieve a strategic objective.
  The objectives of projects and operations are fundamentally different. The objective of a project is to attain the objective and close the project. The objective of an ongoing nonprojectized operation is normally to sustain the business. Projects are fundamentally different because the project ceases when its declared objectives have been attained, while nonproject undertakings adopt a new set of objectives and continue to work.
  The temporary nature of projects may apply to other aspects of the endeavor as well:

   The opportunity or market window is usually temporary—most projects have a limited time frame in which to produce their product or service.

   The project team, as a team, seldom outlives the project—most projects are performed by a team created for the sole purpose of performing the project, and the team is disbanded when the project is complete.

1.2.2 Unique Product, Service or Result
Projects involve doing something which has not been done before and which is, therefore, unique. A product or service may be unique even if the category to which it belongs to is large. For example, many thousands of office buildings have been developed, but each individual facility is unique—different owner, different design, different location, different contractors, and so on. The presence of repetitive elements does not change the fundamental uniqueness of project work. For example:

   A project to develop a new commercial airliner may require multiple prototypes.

   A project to bring a new drug to market may require thousands of doses of the drug to support clinical trials.

   A real estate development project may include hundreds of individual units.

   A development project (e.g., water and sanitation) may be implemented in five geographic areas.

1.2.3 Progressive Elaboration

Progressive elaboration is a characteristic of projects that integrates the concepts of temporary and unique. Because the product of each project is unique, the characteristics that distinguish the product or service must be progressively elaborated. Progressively means "proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments" while elaborated means "worked out with care and detail; developed thoroughly" [1]. These distinguishing characteristics will be broadly defined early in the project and will be made more explicit and detailed as the project team develops a better and more complete understanding of the product.
  Progressive elaboration of product characteristics must be carefully coordinated with proper project scope definition, particularly if the project is performed under contract. When properly defined, the scope of the project—the work to be done—should remain constant even as the product characteristics are progressively elaborated. The relationship between product scope and project scope is discussed further in the introduction to Chapter 5.
  The following two examples illustrate progressive elaboration in two different application areas.
  Example 1. Development of a chemical processing plant begins with process engineering to define the characteristics of the process. These characteristics are used to design the major processing units. This information becomes the basis for engineering design which defines both the detail plant layout and the mechanical characteristics of the process units and ancillary facilities. All of these result in design drawings which are elaborated to produce fabrication drawings (construction isometrics). During construction, interpretations and adaptations are made as needed and subject to proper approval. This further elaboration of the characteristics is captured by as built drawings. During test and turnover, further elaboration of the characteristics is often made in the form of final operating adjustments.
  Example 2. The product of an economic development project may initially be defined as "Improve the quality of life of the lowest income residents of community X". As the project proceeds, the product may be described more specifically as, for example: "Provide acess to food and water to 500 low income residents in community X". The next round of progressive elaboration might focus exclusively on increasing agriculture production and marketing with provision of water deemed to be secondary priority to be initiated once the agriculture component is well under way.