Computing and Information Technology
Project Management Processes
Definition of a Project

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the guiding force for Project Management practices and standards that are used throughout the world. Their documentation will serve as the basis for most of the Project Management materials that are used at Wayne State. PMI defines a project in their guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge as 'a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service'.

The focus of this document is to assist with identifying whether work requested of C&IT resources is project work or not. Work is classified as project work if it has many of the characteristics listed next.

  1. A project has a definite beginning date.
  2. A project has a definite ending date.
  3. A project has not been done before.
  4. The product of the project is unique.
  5. Requested work that has high visibility should be classified as a project.
  6. A project is temporary work as opposed to on-going functional work.
  7. A project is complete when its defined goals and objectives have been met.
  8. A project is successful when it has:
    1. Met the expectations of its stakeholders.
    2. Been completed within budget.
    3. Been completed on time.
  9. Projects require the completion of the items listed in the Project Initiation section.
  10. All other work is day to day functional or maintenance work.

There will be cases where it is questionable whether to classify the requested work as a project. Some reasons for the uncertainty include but are not limited to:

  1. The work has a short duration.
  2. The work has a small cost of completion.
  3. The work is deemed to be comparable to work done repetitively or on a regular basis by staff.
  4. The work dribbles in to C&IT in multiple and seemingly small chunks.

In questionable cases, the default action is to make the work a project. This will move the work into the Portfolio Management reporting where management can make a determination whether they want these items removed as a project and treated as maintenance. The important thing is to exercise common sense and good judgment in these types of cases.

This next section is a guideline with some examples to help facilitate with identifying projects versus on-going functional work.

  1. The BMC suite of performance products was previously implemented and has been replaced by the Compuware suite. Even though staff is assigned to 're-implement' the Compuware suite, the work is treated as a new project.
  2. New software releases are received multiple times throughout the year for any given application. Even though staff has performed previous release installations, each new release is a new project.
  3. Telecommunications has installed connectivity in all of the new dorms to date. A request to install connectivity in a newly constructed dorm is a new project.
  4. A request is made by a user for help in determining whether to use functionality in any given application that has not been used before. This request is a project.
  5. A request is made to enhance the use of functionality already used in any given application. This request is a project.
  6. You know that there will be a series of individual requests from multiple departments to do work in any given application. The requests are unique even though they affect the same application. These requests should be treated as a single project.
  7. A request is made to create one or more web pages that will be used by the University community. The request should be treated as a project.
  8. A request is made by a user for work to adjust or correct work that was previously performed. This request is not a project (i.e., it is maintenance work).