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3.1 Project Processes

Projects are composed of processes. A process is "a series of actions bringing about a result" (1). Project processes are performed by people and generally fall into one of two major categories:

   Project management processes describe, organize, and complete the work of the project. The project management processes that are applicable to most projects, most of the time, are described briefly in this chapter and in detail in Chapters 4 through 12.

   Product-oriented processes are concerned with specifying and creating the project product. Product-oriented processes are typically defined by the project life cycle (discussed in Section 2.1) and vary by application area (discussed in Appendix F).

  Project management processes and product-oriented processes overlap and interact throughout the project. For example, the scope of the project cannot be defined in the absence of some basic understanding of how to create the product.