ABSTRACT
The first characteristic is that a project is temporary, that is, it has a beginning and an end. In many cases, determining the start and the end is easy. Consider the following examples: a contract sign-off, a formal authorization to proceed from senior management, a system going in production. In practice, however, many projects begin by slowly building up resources and interest, while the official start happens sometime after the resources and work have been invested. Others have residual work and activities going on after the official end, for instance to follow up on defects and problems found in project outputs. In all cases, however, projects have a start and a conclusion.
