Project work

Dan: Is all the work that we do in the organisation a project?

Tom: Not really, Dan. The work that you do every day we usually call operational work. That could be activities such as serving customers, shipping finished good, ordering parts on a regular basis and, of course, going to meetings. It is when we do something different that has a clear beginning and a clear end then we call it a project. It could include things such as building a new factory, designing and building a new payroll system or launching a new product line.

Dan: I hear people talking about projects more and more. Is that because we are doing lots of different things?

Tom: It could be but it could also be because managers in organisations are seeing the benefits of good project management that they are applying the tools and techniques of project management to operational work. We call this ‘Management by Projects’.

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