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A project is an undertaking of limited duration in time with a defined outcome. It can also comprise an
ambitious plan to define and constrain a future by limiting it to set goals and parameters.
The planning, execution and monitoring of major projects sometimes involves setting up a special temporary organization, consisting of a project team and one or more work teams. A project usually needs
resources.
The word project comes from the Latin word projectum from
projicere, "to throw something forwards" which in turn comes from pro-, which denotes something that precedes
the action of the next part of the word in time (paralleling the Greek
πρό) and jacere, "to throw". The word "project" thus actually originally meant "something that comes
before anything else is done". When the word was initially adopted, it referred to a plan of something, not to the act of
actually carrying this plan out. Something performed in accordance with a project was called an object. This use of "project" changed in the 1950s when several
techniques for project management were introduced: with this
advent the word slightly changed meaning to cover both projects and objects. However in certain projects there may still exist so
called objects and object leaders, reflecting the older use
of the words.
One may also think in terms of platonism, where ideas from the realm of ideals are projected onto the physical world. (See: Plato's
allegory of the cave.)
Particularly liked by Western business, projects can subdivide into sub-projects
and spawn an industrial sub-culture of project planning and
project management, all oblivious to more holistic
developments.
Some feel this habit of short-termism has permeated economic planning and
personal growth to the detriment of cyclical and multi-cultural world
views. Alternatives to project-centric planning include trend-oriented goal-setting and directional planning.
However, this view is contentious, and indeed industrial program
management and portfolio management represent ways of administering a range of projects to fulfil an over-arching
strategy.
Notable projects include:
Compare
- campaign, process, program
See also
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