## glossary
What is Project?
A project is a temporary effort undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. The two keywords in that definition do all the work: temporary means it has a defined beginning and end; unique means the result differs from what already exists.
That separates it from operations, which are continuous and repetitive. Building a payment system is a project; keeping it running and handling support tickets is operations. The distinction matters because the two demand very different styles of management.
The triple constraint
Every project operates under three interdependent variables: scope (what will be delivered), schedule and cost. Changing one affects the others — expanding scope without touching schedule and cost is the most common origin of failed projects. Quality is usually treated as the fourth dimension, and it is the one that silently absorbs the imbalance when nobody admits the trade-off.
Life cycle
- Initiation — defines the objective, the justification and the stakeholders.
- Planning — details scope, schedule, budget, risks and communication.
- Execution — the work happens; it consumes most of the resources.
- Monitoring and control — tracks deviations and adjusts, in parallel with execution.
- Closure — formal delivery, documentation and lessons learned.
Predictive or agile
The predictive (waterfall) approach plans everything up front and executes in sequence. It works when requirements are stable and well understood — civil construction is the classic example. The agile approach delivers in short cycles, folding what was learned into each iteration. It works when requirements are uncertain and evolving, which is the case for most software projects.
PREDICTIVE
requirements -> design -> build -> test -> delivery
(problems surface at the end, when fixing them is expensive)
AGILE
[req -> build -> test -> delivery] repeated every
sprint, with the next cycle's scope informed
by what was learned in the previous oneWhy projects fail
The recurring causes are rarely technical: poorly defined scope at the start, uncontrolled requirement growth without schedule adjustments, deficient communication between the parties, optimistic estimates treated as commitments, and risks that were identified but never managed. A deeper dive in a technology context is in IT project management and in the distinction between project, program and portfolio.
## faq
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a project, a program and a portfolio?
A project is a unique effort with a beginning and an end. A program is a set of related projects managed together to obtain benefits that could not be achieved separately. A portfolio is the whole collection of an organization’s programs and projects, prioritized according to strategy.
Does agile replace project management?
No, it changes how it is done. Scope, schedule, cost, risk and stakeholders still exist — what changes is that planning becomes continuous instead of up-front, and adaptation is expected rather than treated as a deviation.
What is scope creep?
It is the gradual, uncontrolled growth of scope, when seemingly small requests pile up without schedule or budget adjustments. It is one of the main causes of delays, and the antidote is an explicit change-control process.
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