ABSTRACT
What Is a Project? A project is a temporary effort to produce a predetermined outcome. Under the best of conditions, the need for the project will have been clearly established, the definition of the project will have been discussed and resolved, and the economic viability of the project will have been estimated. Economic viability may mean profit; it may mean cost savings; it may mean enhanced productivity. However couched, most projects seek to produce some outcome that solves a problem, and the solution is seen as having economic utility. (Of course, there are exceptions: projects that are funded for purely aesthetic reasons; a work of art is an example.)
All projects have a beginning and an end. The duration may be relatively short as in the moving of an office to a new location, or it may involve many years as in the design and construction of an aircraft carrier.
