What is a project

So today I would like to discuss what is a project as per PMBOK

A project is temporary in nature taken up to create a unique product, service or result.

What does the above statement mean.

Lets take a few examples
Example 1:
A maintenance contract where the same job has to be done again and again. A maintenance job can be for a building, or an IT product.

Is this a project.
Think

• Does it suffice unique in nature
• Would it create a product or service or a result
• Is it time bound

Answers to the above questions

• Does it suffice unique in nature
• No its a repetitive 
• Would it create a product or service or a result
• No its just an ongoing work
• Is it time bound
• Yes it can be bounded by a contract but again its repetitive in nature.

So where do we classify this kind of work. These kind of work are classified as part of operation.


Example 2:
I am working in a manufacturing industry, "TomAM". Client "AB" has given special order to make 50 sets of electrical switches. The first set of order delivery date is 10/21/2015 and final order delivery date is 10/01/2016. Are we here talking about the project which TomAM needs to execute.

Answer to this question is "Yes"

• The project is temporary in nature
• The project will delivery a specific product
• The project is time bound. 

In next topic we will deal with Projects Program and Portfolio

A few questions on the same topic can be found on sample-tests.com