The Importance of Projects in the Business World

00:02 Welcome to the world of project management.

00:06 So let's begin with an important question.

00:09 What is a project? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? We constantly hear music bands, artists, sport team managers, politicians say, my project I have a new project, the project about, etc..

00:28 So is it just another buzzword used to make some activities sound more sophisticated? No, it's something much, much different.

00:38 A project is something real exciting and extremely useful for people that want to accomplish their future ideas.

00:46 So let's get back to the main question.

00:48 What is a project? The Project Management Institute defines it as a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.

01:03 In other words, it's a temporary initiative that is agreed, planned and executed to achieve a specific goal.

01:11 Let's break this down with some terms.

01:15 First we have time.

01:17 This refers to a project being a temporary initiative.

01:21 It is distinct from normal business operations in that it has a predetermined start and end date.

01:27 Normal operations are characterized by the routine work in established companies.

01:33 Think of the day to day activities which are not very different from one day to another.

01:38 The accounting and finance department, product, department, sales and marketing, etc. There is no end date assigned to these repeating activities.

01:47 Projects, on the other hand, have a strict expiry date.

01:52 Then there is the specific goal you wish to achieve with the project.

01:57 You can think of it as the output of a project.

02:01 This output can be a product like construct a new office, building a service like outsource a call center or a result such as improving existing business process.

02:15 The output together with the work done to create it is called Project Scope.

02:20 The scope of each project is unique.

02:24 They can be project outputs that are similar.

02:27 Building an exact same house but in a different place, for example.

02:31 But the fact that the land and location are different is enough to change the project scope. The architects and engineers will need to adapt their construction accordingly, changing the way the project work will be done.

02:44 If the work and the output are the same, this will not be a project.

02:48 The scope will not be unique and it will be a regular business process.

02:54 The third key attribute is cost, which is the resources specifically dedicated to accomplishing the goal in mind.

03:02 These three attributes form the project management triple constraint.

03:08 Time, scope and cost are dependent on each other.

03:12 After determining them at the start.

03:14 If one of them changes, it will trigger a change in one or both of the others.

03:19 For example, let's say that you need to pull the end date of your project forward.

03:24 To do this, you will need to either increase your resources input by spending more or produce fewer products output or perhaps even both.

03:36 So this is the general shape of a project.

03:39 Remember a temporary initiative that is agreed, planned and executed to achieve a specific goal.

03:47 And it's worth noting that projects are complex initiatives.

03:51 Going to a new restaurant for dinner is also a temporary activity with a specific goal and limited budget.

03:58 But it's not a project.

04:01 It also needs to benefit the business through working in conjunction with a business strategy, which is what we will be discussing next.

04:09 Thanks for watching.