The term "Project" applies to so many different kinds of work that no one seems to be able to agree on what it means. When someone says, "I'm going to be working on a new project next month," it could mean just about anything, from starting a new company to desinging a new logo. Certainly, the PMI has gone out of it's way to establish the definitive meaning of Project, but that has not exactly clarified the term "Project" in very many minds. Very few organizations have defined what constitutes a project within the context of the organization.
The meaning seems to range from something that takes a half a day to something that takes half a decade. It can be creative or mechanical. A project can be something that's never been done or something that has been done millions of times. Clearly, any discussion of Project Portfolio Management has one pressing question: what is a project?
Other questions fall right on the heels of the fundamental question, What is a project? Two important examples are 1) What kinds of projects do we do? and 2) How do we know if they are successful? These two questions pose surprisingly formidable challenges to many organizations. The reason they are important is that project type and project success are inextricably linked. Success for certain kinds of project does not often translate directly into success for other kinds of projects.
The traditional definition of project success typically goes something like this: "on time, on budget and meeting user expectations." Unfortunately, this definition falls far short of the targets that organizations need to understand and achieve. I, for one, have been on plenty of projects that were late, over budget and did not meet user expectations, but were extremely valuable to the organization, but in the traditional measures of success, they were failures.
What is wrong? What is missing? What needs to change? I will propose some answers to these questions as this paper proceeds. The definition I propose for the term "project" for organizations goes something like this: "A project is part of a portfolio of project investments, and the entire project portfolio represents a continuous investment of time, skills and money toward creating a desired future state for products, services and customers." This definition will lead us to a better understanding of project types and project success.
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