Employers want people who can tell the difference between running a project and doing routine work, because the two are managed differently. A project needs a plan with an end date; routine work needs a steady system.
The idea
A project is a temporary piece of work with a clear goal. It has:
- A goal. Something specific it must produce or change, such as a working borehole or an open shop.
- A start and an end. When the goal is reached, or the time runs out, the project closes.
- Limited resources. A set budget, a certain number of people, and only so much time.
Routine work, sometimes called operations, carries on with no end date. Selling soap every day in Hawa's shop is routine work. Opening the shop is a project. Pumping water from the borehole every morning is routine. Drilling it and training the water committee was the project.
Scope, time and cost
Every project balances three things:
- Scope: what the project will deliver.
- Time: how long it has.
- Cost: how much money it can spend.
People often call these the triple constraint, because changing one usually changes the others. Quality sits in the middle: squeeze the three too hard and quality suffers.