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What is a Project?

Surprisingly it's sometimes difficult to tell if a set of activities for a given team or individual should even be considered a project. We've provided these basic definitions to help users of the Standards understand and describe their activities.

Project

A project is a time-bound endeavor undertaken to create or evolve a unique product, service or result. Projects come in different sizes and require different levels of formality and governance.

HUIT Project

This term is used specifically for a project that is undertaken to achieve a HUIT goal.  For example, Aurora or GMAS 2.0

Operations

Tickets, Work Orders or any number of other naming conventions describe "work" of any duration that generally follows a repetitive process because it adheres an organization’s existing procedures and is managed by ITIL processes.

Portfolio

Collection of current and future projects that are managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.

HUIT Program

A program is needed when group of related HUIT projects are managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually. A HUIT program must have a program director who reports to the UCIO or HUIT CTO. Additionally, the program team must be dedicated to the program without operational responsibilities outside of the program. Any HUIT Program constitutes a multi-year effort.  Programs address a major need: to improve a particular service for the HUIT user community; to prepare HUIT in anticipation of a Strategic Initiative; to evolve HUIT as an organization; and/or to evolve a large segment of HUIT services together. An example of a HUIT Program would be Cloud/Dev Ops.

Strategic Program

A HUIT program that is based on a Strategic Initiative that creates and or transforms services for the whole university or a large portion of it. It consists of multiple projects representing work streams that are interdependent and thus must be managed together over multiple years.  Examples of a Strategic Program include SIS, IAM, or Harvard Phone. 

Strategic Initiative

A Strategic Initiative is based on the CIO Council identifying a university-wide need and including it as part of the University IT Strategic Plan. Implementation may occur through a Strategic Program, a project, or some other coordinated effort. Examples would be Vendor Management and Data for Learning Analytics.


Is it a Project? Flow Chart

This flow chart has been created to help you determine if the work you're undertaking fits the category of a Project.

Is It a Project?

Click to view larger image

 

Differences between Projects and Operations:

  • Projects are unique and temporary. Operations work is ongoing activities with repetitive output.

  • Projects are executed to start a new business objective and terminated when it is achieved. Operational work is performed to keep organization functioning.

  • Projects have definite beginning and ending. Operations are ongoing.

  • Projects create a unique product, service, or results. Operations produce the same product or do the same work repeatedly.

  • A Program is a collection of multiple projects that are managed and reported on as a group. Each individual project is managed and summary information is rolled up into program reports.

  • A Portfolio is a grouping of projects and programs that are prioritized and reported on as a group. Some portfolios are simply a collection of projects with one or more features in common. The group of FAS project is the FAS Portfolio.