Project management €“ is it an art or science?

Project management is mainly about planning and managing change €“ managing the movement from one state to another. This could mean implementing a new service, a new appraisal system, a refit or the re-merchandising of part of the shop. Each of these has associated risks, requires careful communication and planning and will have a defined desirable outcome. In short, they are projects.

We know that business is always all about change €“ what you do next year may be different from what you did this year and that is likely to be very different from what you did five years ago. Making that change happen can be seen as a series of projects, the tasks or objectives that you want to achieve. These can be in various sizes and shapes, from the small to the large and highly complex. A useful definition is:

• A project is the work that needs to be done to produce a unique, predefined outcome within a predetermined period of time and budget.
• It is the one-of-a-kind nature that distinguishes a project from normal ongoing work. Getting everyone to spend an afternoon pitching in to tidy up the dispensary is a project; keeping it tidy is normal work.