Managing by projects is not new. It’s been used by highly creative and high value added organizations such as R&D, architectural, legal, engineering, and consulting groups. Now, Brand U project teams can be found in hospitals, schools, manufacturing, defense, banking, food, and government. Many daily activities such as baking a pie, servicing a customer, cutting someone’s hair, or writing a letter can be thought in terms of daily project activities. Some even speculate that life itself is a set of discrete mini-projects or connected activities.
Let’s start with Brand U project basics. A project is essentially a “temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service”.[i]Other important features of a Brand U project include:
- Work that matters. Brand U project is work that matters – to you and your stakeholders. It may be your calling, your meal ticket, or both rolled up in one.
- Specific objective. The result, objective, or deliverable may be reducing nonconformances by 50%, building a bridge, making 10 cold calls a day, completing all your chores, planning a wedding, or designing an ad.
- Satisfy stakeholders. The completion of a project is often not good enough. Tom Peters and others say it should ‘wow’ your stakeholders. At a minimum, it must be completed on time, on budget, and satisfy your stakeholders.
- Simple or complex. A project may be as complex as building an airport or as simple as completing the activities in your day planner. Finishing dishes the next day is often unacceptable to one’s significant other or the next month if one is a ‘terminally badly behaving single guy.’ Chores are important life projects because their success leads to a satisfied and healthy domestic stakeholder environment.[i]
- Defined or open end date. The project may end when the goal has been achieved or when all resources have been consumed. Or, a project may involve an ongoing process of supporting core processes.
- Resources. Resources, such as equipment and moneys, are required to complete the project.
- Skills. People or teams must have the value-adding skills to complete the project successfully. These skills are what differentiate Brand U’s from their peers
- Core project processes. The Project Management Institute has identified 9 core project processes from integration management to procurement management. In a projectized organization, these become a project’s core processes or core competencies
- Specific start date. The project starts at an agreed upon time. On a, personal level, this means following through on commitments.
[i] A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMI, 1996, p. 4.
[i].J. Meredith and S. Mantel, Project Management, John Wiley, 1995, p. 3.