Project Management — What is a Project?

Or how I got out of bed the other day and other things you didn’t know were projects…

So what exactly is a Project?

So I want to be clear about what we’re talking about here. We are defining a project as it is viewed by a project manager. According to the Project Management Institute, or PMI, a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique project service or result (PMI, 2021).

It is important to understand this when one is starting off in a career of managing projects and it is doubly important if you are looking to take one of the project management certifications.

Got any examples?

There are an infinite number of examples we could cite as being projects. That’s because almost everything you do could be broken down and considered to be a project.

One of the common examples of a project is building a house. You go through all the phases associated with project management — initiating, planning, executing and monitoring and then closing. You have to decide what type of house you want to build, where to build it, how big it will be, identify the contractor, get plans made etc. This is a project because it has a start and an end and it creates something unique.

Another example would be if you decided to buy an old car and restore it. You’d have to figure out what type of car, identify work…