What is the real meaning of the word project?

In this podcast, Ricardo discusses the definition of the word "project". He says that the word "project" has two meanings. The first is related to the endeavor needed to produce a unique product or service, as presented in the PMBOK® Guide. The second concerns the word "project" with the discipline of knowledge related to projects, programs and portfolios, such as the letter "P" from PMI and IPMA and the word "project" from the Project Management MBA courses.

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Episode transcript

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Hello, everybody. Welcome to the five minutes PM podcast today. I like to discuss with you, what about the word? Project the work that it's inside, the PMI project management Institute and all guides, and a lot of people sometimes misunderstand the real meaning of the word project and why I'm talking about this because first, a lot of people relate. Project two, a single effort to create a unique product and service like on the PMBOK Guide so they think, okay, so what is project management?

So project management is in the Management have a single Project. And what I like to offer to you now, returning back to 2008, I was as a volunteer of BMI on the board, on the PMI board of directors that was responsible for the strategic planning and program alignment community. And we work a lot to redefine some key aspects of our strategic plan in what we did. We really find the word Project So.

Every time that we use the word project, we need to understand that we are dealing with two different meanings. The first one it's exactly the concept that I define it 10 seconds ago. It's the single Project single in Fort completely PMBOK Guide related So on time and cost and scandal. And the second one, the second one is the discipline of project management. And what do I mean by that?

It's everything that its not related with the routine work we can put inside this big discipline called project management and why I'm seeing this because Project portfolio and program management, this tree disciplines, they belong to a big one called project management. So when we listen PMI project management Institute, it's not the Institute that handles only single project is not the Institute of PMBOK know it's the Institute that address Project program and portfolio.

So the word project that has two different meanings, the Project discipline that congregate the single project programs and also portfolios. So if you were a student have an MBA in project management, you are not studying one to three years to manage or a single project. You are learning the discipline that will help you to select properly the right projects to address and link your project's to strategy work in a tactical approach with programs in also to handle the single projects.

So it's more of and beyond PMBOK. And because of that, that PMI created several orders, credentials, and all these credentials are inside. One big, big umbrella called Project Management. So it's not Project program and portfolio management Institute for PMI. So the speed Minutes the discipline of project management like IPMA, it's not international project program and portfolio management association.

So we are starting of using this street piece. We are using a project as also this umbrella, this big umbrella that will cover the Project, the portfolio and the program. Management So this is what I like 12 of us. So every time that you think about project, you need to understand two different things. One single project on time on cost scandal, communication, nine areas of PMBOK nine knowledge areas. And second one it's Project the discipline that we have congregate, everything related to PMBOK bless you program and portfolio management.

I hope you enjoyed this podcast and see you next week with another five minutes PM. Podcast bye. Bye.

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What is the real meaning of the word project?

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