Projects vs operations#

Questions about projects and operations:

• What is a project?
• What is an operation?
• What is the difference between them?
• How to manage them?

Project#

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken by a company or organization to achieve an project objective with an established budget.

Temporary#

A project must have a start and end date, BOTH!.

The project ends when:

• The objective has been achieved.
• when it is clear that the objectives will not or cannot be achieved.
• when the need for the project no longer exists.

Objective#

The project objective is what the organization aims to achieve with this project. Deliverables are planned to achieve these project objectives.

Note that the project objective is not to produce deliverables, but rather that deliverables are a means to achieve project objectives.

Deliverables are clasified as products, sercives or results:

• Product: An element, physical or not-physical.
• Service: Any type of service.
• Result: knowledge.

There are some examples:

• Software development:
  • An application. (Product)
  • Its user manual. (Product)
  • A training session conducted on the application. (Service)
• Software maintenance:
  • A service for handling requests for changes and error detection. (Service)
  • Monthly reports. (Result)
• Server administration:
  • Logging of operations performed, backups, installations, queries, etc. (Results)
  • Recovery plans. (Result)
  • Increased memory or computation capacity. (Product)
• Give a course:
  • Course given. (Service)
  • Developed material. (Result)
• Design a sales campaign:
  • Campaign documentation. (Result)
  • Promotional brochures. (Product)
• Write an article:
  • The article with the results. (Product)
  • Documentation on the tests performed. (Result)

Misconceptions#

Organizations call many different things a project:

• Smaller, unbounded activities.
• Activities that are more global, not bounded, and permanent in time.
• Companies as projects.
• Programs, actions and initiatives as projects.

A project must be clear and temporally bounded.

Metodology#

It is important to establish a standard methodology, which can be slightly adjusted for each project depending on its characteristics and size.

Operations#

Operations are ongoing routine tasks that follow a company’s procedures.

Characteristics:

• Don’t produce new deliverables.
• Are less risky.
• Are permanent.
• Provides the same result or service to maintain the day-to-day business.

Differences#

Organizations execute their work in order to achieve their objectives. This work can be categorized:

• As work to be performed in a project.
• As part of the operations defined in the organization.

So projects and operations are usually confused.

Similarities:

• Planned, executed, and monitored.
• Executed by people.
• Limited resources.

Differences:

Characteristic	Projects	Operations
Purpose	Achieve the defined objectives and finish	Sustaini the organization
Temporality	Temporary. Defined start and end	Performed continuously
People	Temporary and dynamic teams to meet the needs of the project	Functional teams aligned with the organization
Authority over the manager	The project manager has the ultimate authority, if there is someone above him, he is connected to him	There is an hierarchy established between the manager and a higher authority