Definition Of Project

A project is normally thought of as a Human endeavor in which activity is channeled to accomplish some defined end, or to take place in some defined space, following agreeable arrangements for how tasks are to be managed, assigned, and accomplished. At the beginning, the scope and plan may be fuzzy and involve considerable manipulation and arrangements to make sure that the project is worth doing, that resources are or can be made available, and that interest in the results of the project are sufficient to provide the necessary investment to allow its accomplishment.

Projects are not just endeavors of groups of people and investments of large amounts of capital and other resources. Sometimes a project starts with a simple idea. Beginning only as an idea in the mind of a single human being. It may be as simple as that of driving a nail in a wall to hang something upon, or as grandiose as to encompass exploration of this galaxy and galaxies beyond for some elusive, meaningful fact.

For something to be a project, one normally thinks of it as outside of the range of the things one does to survive. It normally involves forward thinking and planning with appropriate gathering of necessaries. Another thing which should be present is that when the project is done, one should want to "celebrate" its completion.

To be sure, all of us are involved in projects, ranging from those we imagine, to those on someone's list for us, to those we are involved with in our jobs.

It is true that many of the things we call projects and which occupy our time, do not fit the above description of a thing we want to "celebrate" when complete, but it is also true that the most meaningful of our projects are not "self", but "others" serving. The projects which make life better, not only for us, but for others.

While some view projects as means of wealth enhancement, and the securing of better surroundings and more "stuff", perhaps we can make room for some projects and activities which are focused on improving the surroundings and "stuff" of others. There is a wealth secured by such altruism which cannot be measured by surroundings or "stuff", and from which we can derive great satisfaction and which we can rightfully "celebrate".

-- DonaldNoyes

Attributes of a project, from PRINCE2.

A project is a set of activities that:

Have a defined objective
Have an unambiguous start and ending
Have their own (temporary) organizational structure
Have limited resources
Are not normal work from current business processes
Are less efficient than regular work

-- WalterFlaat

I would say the above is the definition of a scheduled project.

Unfortunately, the PMI definition of a project requiring fixed definitions of scope, cost, and schedule appears to be gaining traction. This definition overwrites years of common usage and leaves us without a descriptive term for other types of work. Some have even started to deny that any such open-ended tasks exist.

Even PMI has recognized this and has introduced "programs" and "portfolios", with there own membership fees and exams, of course.

The problem is that most work falls into the open-ended category. It lacks a fully enumerated and defined set of objectives and defined timeframes. Costs and resources aren't the limitation, it is the rate of expenditure that is restricted. I fear that the restrictive definition of projects limits the discussion of other work efforts; ones that are often far more applicable than the hard limits model.

CategoryProject CategoryIdeaForm