Dictionary Meaning
“A piece of planned work or an activity that is finished over a period of time and intended to achieve a particular purpose.”
According to PMBOK the definition of project is :
“A Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique Product, Service or a result.”
There cannot be a better definition of Project but this definition is not being understood by most people.
WHY TEMPORARY?
Projects are temporary because they start, and they end. They are not like ongoing operations / activities which have no specific start or end dates. Temporary does not mean the duration of the project is small. There can be Projects having duration as a few minutes or hours and there can be projects longer than 5 or 10 years.
Another point we need to understand is, at what stage does the Project End. Typically, a Project ends when it gets completed. But at times, the Project can end before the completion when, due to a reason, it is decided not to continue with the Project further. So many Projects come underway but many a times before completion it is felt that this project is no longer needed, then it can be terminated in between.
ENDEAVOUR:
“An attempt to achieve a goal”
Endeavour is not an ordinary attempt or a regular effort to do something, but it is making an attempt which is goal oriented. This means that a Project needs some special efforts rather than routine activities which will be very clear from the examples of a project.
Projects are executed in highly uncertain environments and hence at times it is very difficult to make a correct assessment of the efforts required to complete the project within the constraints of time, cost, scope, quality, resources and risk.
UNIQUE PRODUCT, SERVICE OR RESULT:
The outcome of all the projects will be Unique. No two projects will ever be the same and the outcome can be in the form of a Product, Service or a Result depending upon the type of the Project.
Product is a tangible item while Service or Result are intangible items. In case of a Building Construction Project, which a Contractor is required to construct, the Product of the Project will be the Building, which is tangible whereas in case of designing of a Building by an Architect, it will be a Service project for the Architect and it is intangible.
In case of a training project for a trainer it can be a Service project which will be measured by the kind of training services he provides while for the trainees, it can only give a Result – the trainees will upgrade their knowledge and skills.