Project and project management

When project theories were developed, a project was defined as an undertaking that accomplishes a set goal within a designated budget and a specified time frame.

The project work, an undertaking carried out in the form of a project, has always been characterised by a short implementation period. Projects are limited by time.

Nowadays the term project is defined in a broader meaning. According to Turner (1999, 3), a project is an endeavour in which human, material and financial resources are organised in a novel way to undertake an unique scope of work, of given specification, within the constraints of cost and time, so as to achieve a beneficial change defined by quantitative and qualitative objectives.

Turner's (1999, 3) definition presents the five basic goals of a project: purpose, time, cost, quality and organisation. Later on, Turner and Müller (2003, 2) have

extended this definition by indicating a range of features shared by the projects (Table 3.1).

Table 3.1 Features of projects (Turner & Müller 2003, 2)

Aim Features Pressures Processes

To deliver Unique Uncertainty Flexible

Beneficial Novel Integration Goal Oriented

Change Transient Transience Staged

A project is undertaken to deliver beneficial change and thus has three essential features (Turner & Müller 2003, 1):

It is unique: no project before or after will be exactly the same

It is an undertaking using novel processes: no project before or after will use exactly the same approach

It is transient: it has a beginning and an end

These features create three pressures:

Projects are subject to uncertainty: we cannot be certain that our plans will deliver the required project outcomes or the desired beneficial change.

They create a need for integration: of the resources to do the project, between the different parts of the projects, and of the project into the business.

They are undertaken subject to urgency: of delivering the desired outcomes within desired timescales.

Also Riis and Mikkelsen (1997, 19) have recognised what will make the project difficult to carry out. They add two characteristics to Turner’s and Müller’s (2003, 1) list of pressures. A high degree of complexity and sensitivity to conflicts of the interests among the stakeholders may cause difficulties in the project planning and implementation.

The project management approach is used in many areas of commercial and human life. PMBOK (2000, 6) defines project management as an application of the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques of project activities to meet or to exceed the stakeholders’ needs and expectations from a project. Turner (1999, 4 - 6) claims that project management is about managing the people to deliver the results, not managing the work. The project has not been carried out for its own sake, but to

achieve some output. Turner (1996) as cited in Atkinson (1999, 338) has defined project management in a new economy so that it captures the essence of the discipline, stating that project management is “art and science of converting vision into reality”. Many projects are undertaken today in small companies, where the project team is involved in all the business aspects, and there is no distinction between the project success and the product success. The projects in the future will no longer be just operational tools for executing the strategy. They will become engines that drive the strategy into new directions (Shenhar et al. 2001, 703).

The areas where projects are implemented are wide. It is difficult to find a comprehensive model that suites every project. In the project management literature, two major observations have been made. First, projects have been divided into many subcategories. The categorisation varies a lot from author to author. Second, the project lifecycle and the tasks that should be done in the different stages vary a lot in the literature. The stages depend on the type of project (PMBOK 2000), but there are some common issues that seem to form the core of the project management discipline.

Table 3.2 presents four different models, their phases and the corresponding activities of each phase. The most common is the four-phase model, but the names of the phases change from author to author. In general, the project life cycle contains four phases. The project begins with the feasibility phase, when the need for the project is identified, preliminary analysis is carried out, and preliminary plans and vision are presented to the top management in order to gain their commitment. In the planning phase project plan, recourses, costs, schedule and organisation are defined. The realisation of the project takes place in the implementation phase.

The project management needs to motivate, control and lead the people during the implementation. In the finalising phase the results are delivered to the customer, the responsibilities are transferred to the organisation and the project is evaluated.

Table 3.2 Different versions of projects and their tasks

Sell the project to key personnel Train in change and project issues Conclude the project

Change Close up the project Evaluate the project

Turner and Cochrane (1993, 93) have divided projects to four categories according to the clarity of the goals and the methods used (Figure 3.1).

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Figure 3.1 Goals-and-methods matrix (Turner & Cochrane 1993, 95)

Turner and Payne Esq (1997, 16) describe the different types of projects as follows:

Type 1 Engineering projects have well-defined goals and methods of achieving those goals. The projects have a long history of proceduralisation in engineering construction and building industries. These projects have a greater chance of success.

Type 2 Product development projects have well-understood goals, but identifying the method for achieving the goals is the main point of the project.

Type 3 Systems development projects usually have well-defined methods, but the goals are poorly defined.

Type 4 The projects of Type 4 are the ones with a greater chance of failure, being characterised by poorly defined goals and methods.

When dealing with changes in the organisation, the working practices and processes, the goals, and the working methods are not necessarily known. The complexity of the change project is caused by the ill-defined goals and methods, as it is not always clear what the actual outcome of the project will be and how it will be attained.