Project management according to PMI’s body of knowledge is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. But before we dive into more specifics, let us try to analyze the 2 root words, and understand better what project management is all about. Then let us dissect its nature and its principles together.

What is a Project?

A project is an idea, a dream that starts out in the mind with the word, what if? The person looks around, and say, I have been doing it like this, or it has always been like this, what if?
Then that germ of an idea starts to grow, and before long the person is planning and organizing for change. He is not content to continue the same thing, and so it grows and it takes root, and before long, it becomes a big activity to initiate something new, and we now call it a project.

Whether it is a plan to lose 30 pounds, a plan for a lavish wedding ceremony that impresses, or simply a plan to change office, such can be called a project. As you will note later on, projects are unique endeavors which tasks and objectives have not been exactly undertaken before.

Some companies call it simply change. Others use different terminology. When IBM assembled a group across various departments of the company to come up with the hugely successful System 360 back in the 1960s, they called it a task force. Project management was not in vogue then, and probably they undertook it without many of the principles or tools we have today. Nevertheless it was hugely successful and made IBM the world’s leading company for the next 25 years. When the US Armed Forces launched Desert Storm, it was called an operation, but it could conceivably be considered a project. When Texas Instrument created a committee to help it focus to win the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award, or when HP bought Compaq and tried to merge its operations, that whole gamut of the process is a project.

According to the October 1995 issue of Training Magazine, about 78% of US organizations have at least some employees that are members of a working group called team. What essentially is a team? It is a group of people bound by a common purpose, and with specific , measurable performance goals. Thus, if teams are increasingly becoming the primary means of organizing work in most business firms, we recognize them as mostly engaging in projects as well.

Some samples of projects

Projects abound in corporations, and even in our daily lives. Some samples of projects would include:
• Research and development of new products
• A new car model, a new software version, a new transport vehicle
• Software development / computerizing areas of operation like accounting, inventory, payroll etc.
• Effecting change in the organization, staffing, style, or culture of an organization.
• Changing departmental procedures
• Test marketing a new product
• Adding a new branch or department
• Participating in an exhibit
• Constructing a new building or facility
• Building a new mall, or water system in the community
• Raising money for the church or for charity.
• Running a campaign for public office, or in the local organization / social club.
• Writing a book , planning a wedding , moving house, organizing the church fete

Perpetual Projects

Other than companies that are launching projects to move forward, there are also specific industries or corporations that are into perpetual projects. These are specific industries that tended to have projects as their bread and butter activity.
• Construction
• Software development and Web Design companies
• Auditing and Accounting companies
• Advertising Agencies and Public Relations Companies
• Law Offices
• Medical Practice
• Events and Exhibits by event organizers
• Consulting projects
• Research and Development companies
• Publishing

Project Impact and Size of Projects

Projects can also be of different magnitudes and importance to the company. There are “bet the company” projects, as evidenced by Microsoft going all out for Windows ’95, and Windows 2000. If the project has not been successful, it would have impact severely on the company itself. Every new product release of Apple computers are awaited eagerly, and its successful introduction impacts companywide.

Eurotunnel links France and England on which the successful completion and its subsequent operation, the company would bet its existence. The opening of each Disney theme park is an eagerly awaited event for which it has big implications for the company.

On the other hand, there are smaller projects. A company wants to tap a certain market for which they are hoping to increase their sales by 3%, and therefore commits 5% of their marketing and advertising budget to launch the product, and invest in the channel. The impact is less, but a company may launch dozens of such initiatives or small projects a year.