Projects form temporary investments in skilled disciplines, financial resources and imagined future states.
The key points that are typically emphasized here are temporary, investments and skills. Sure, most projects are bound by a pre-defined beginning and ending; they require an investment of people's time, money or both; they are temporary by nature and so they require a unique management approach. These are not new notions.
What is new is the expectation that these investments will deliver an anticipated return that aligns with known goals. What is new is that managers need to view these investments as fitting into a larger pipeline of projects. What is new is the expectation that projects fit clearly into the big picture. What is new is that project success can no longer be defined in departmental silos.
Most importantly, what is new is that management leadership is becoming aware that the performance of the project portfolio has a major impact on company performance, and that "delegating" (abdicating) the management of projects as stand-alone efforts must end.
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