A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully
planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project
managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations".
A project may be a temporary (rather than a permanent)
social system (
work system
Work system has been used loosely in many areas. This article concerns its use in understanding IT-reliant systems in organizations. A notable use of the term occurred in 1977 in the first volume of MIS Quarterly in two articles by Bostrom and Hein ...
), possibly staffed by
teams (within or across
organizations) to accomplish particular
tasks under
time constraint
In law, time constraints are placed on certain actions and filings in the interest of speedy justice, and additionally to prevent the evasion of the ends of justice by waiting until a matter is moot. The penalty for violating a legislative or cou ...
s.
A project may form a part of wider
programme management
or function as an ''ad hoc'' system.
Note that
open-source software "projects" or artists' musical "projects" (for example) may lack defined team-membership, precise planning and/or time-limited durations.
Overview
The word ''project'' comes from the
Latin word ''projectum'' from the Latin verb ''proicere'', "before an action," which in turn comes from ''pro-'', which denotes precedence, something that comes before something else in time (paralleling the
Greek πρό) and ''iacere'', "to do". The word "project" thus originally meant "before an action".
When the
English language initially adopted the word, it referred to a plan of something, not to the act of actually carrying this plan out. Something performed in accordance with a project became known as an "
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ai ...
". Every project has certain phases of development.
Based on the Project Management Institute, a project can be defined as a "temporary endeavor" aimed to drive changes in teams, organizations, or societies. The output of a project is normally a unique product, service, or result.
Cancellation
Project cancellation is the termination of a
project
A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...
prior to its completion and generally includes the cessation of access to
funding and other project resources. Project cancellation may result from
cost overruns,
schedule
A schedule or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things are i ...
overruns, changes in
budget
A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...
, change or
obviation
Obviation may refer to:
* A linguistic process involving the obviative (fourth person)
* Bypass (disambiguation)
Bypass may refer to:
* Bypass (road), a road that avoids a built-up area (not to be confused with passing lane)
* Flood bypass of a ...
of the
goal of the project,
political factors, or any combination of those and other factors.
Contracts often stipulate the time and the manner in which a project may be cancelled.
Contracted projects typically have a specified end date, when the contract may or may not be renewed; nonrenewal often has the same effect as cancellation but carries different legal ramifications.
Formal definition in the project-management realm
A project consists of a concrete and organized effort motivated by a perceived opportunity when facing a problem, a need, a desire or a source of discomfort (e.g., lack of proper ventilation in a building). It seeks the realization of a unique and innovative deliverable, such as a product, a service, a process, or in some cases, a scientific research. Each project has a beginning and an end,
and as such is considered a closed dynamic system. It is developed along the 4 Ps of project management: Plan, Processes, People, and Power (e.g., line of authority). It is bound by the triple constraints that are calendar, costs and norms of quality,
each of which can be determined and measured objectively along the project lifecycle. Some projects produce some level of formal documentation, the deliverable(s), and some impacts, which can be positive and/or negative.
Specific uses
School and university
A project is an individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned and researched about by students. At schools, educational institutes and universities, a project is a
research assignment - given to a student - which generally requires a larger amount of effort and more independent work than that involved in a normal essay assignment. It requires students to undertake their fact-finding and analysis, either from library/internet research or from gathering data empirically. The written report that comes from the project is usually in the form of a
dissertation, which will contain sections on the project's inception, analysis, findings and conclusions.
Project management
In
project management, a project consists of a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique
product,
service
Service may refer to:
Activities
* Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty
* Civil service, the body of employees of a government
* Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a pu ...
or result.
Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI, legally Project Management Institute, Inc.) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit professional organization for project management.
Overview
PMI serves more than five million professionals including over 680,00 ...
. ''A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a set of standard terminology and guidelines (a body of knowledge) for project management. The body of knowledge evolves over time and is presented in ''A Guide to the Project Management Body of ...
'' (PMBOK Guide), Third Edition. Another definition is a
management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more
business products according to a specified
business case. Projects can also be seen as temporary organizations.
Project
objectives define target status at the end of the project, reaching of which is considered necessary for the achievement of planned benefits. They can be formulated as
SMART criteria:
[Carr, David]
Make Sure Your Project Goals are SMART
PM Hut. Accessed 18. Oct 2009. Projects are often guided by a