Project - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Project n.m. 1. What one for making. Speaks me about your projects 2. Bill: legal text worked out by the government and subjected to the vote of the Parliament 3. Archit. Study of a construction with drawings and estimate 4. Enseign. Project of establishment: together of actions relating to the teaching organization and the modes of teaching decided on the level of an establishment, according to the typical location of this one and in order to better achieve the goals laid down by the national plans. 5. Project within the meaning of management industrial project to see Ci below.

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A project is - in a professional context - a temporary adventure undertaken with an aim of creating a produced or a single service:

temporary because a project finishes on a given date and
single because the end result is specific to the project undertaken.

For example, project A3XX of the company EADS led to the plane A380 delivered in 2007.

Organization, consisting off has Project TEAM and one gold more Work TEAM S. has project usually needs Resource S. --> A project can be controlled by a Plan of development or planned, which partitions its progression by constraints, by limiting it to given objectives and parameters. Planning, the implementation and the control of projects of great scale require sometimes the installation of a temporary organization, which consists of a team of project and one or more work forces. A project generally requires human Resources (ex: aerodynamic specialist), material (ex: machine tool), software (ex: software package of geometrical modeling) and financial.

The word project comes from the Latin word projectum of projicere , “to throw something forwards” whose prefix pro means “which precedes in time” (by analogy with the Greek πρό) and the radical jacere means “to throw”. Thus, the word “project” wanted initially to say “something which comes before the remainder is not made”. When the word was initially adopted, it referred to the plan of something, not with the execution itself of this plan. Something accomplished according to a project was called “object”. This use of the word “project” changed in the Années 1950, when several techniques of Project management were elaborate: with this projection, the word slightly deviated of direction to cover at the same time the projects and the objects. objects and object leader S , reflecting the older uses the words off. -->

One can also think in terms Plato icians, where the Idée S of the sensitive world are projected on the understandable world.

“The science of the projects consists in preventing the difficulties of execution. ” (Vauvenargues). This science is sometimes called management project .

But there would be a risk in reducing the project to the only dimension of its technical realization. Which significance revêt he for the men who seize some, live it, undergo it or make it undergo? In the anthropological analysis that it carried out on the subject, Jean Pierre Boutinet located four types of projects:

the project on the other according to the model of the social order,
the project for the other according to the paternalist model,
the project with the other according to the participative model,
the project of the other according to the model of autonomy.

In theory a project is not a simple idea thrown in the air, but supposes to be described and planned, for example according to the method QQOQCCP

What (actions)
Which (people concerned)
Where (fields touched by the project, even the places)
When (programming in time)
How (means, methods…)
How much (the budget)
Why (reasons and objectives)

The project in a Undertaken

In the book what to manage by project wants to say, the authors writes:

“ Our societies modern became " companies with projets". The projects relate to the institutions as much (project Scolaire, project of establishment Hospitalier, project of Loi, project Politique, project of company…) that individuals, at all the stages of the Life (of the educational project with the project of retirement, while passing by the projects Professional S, family, existential…). This omnipresence of the project mode in all the aspects of the human activity returns to a idealized vision of this mode of action. The project seems become then an instrument which gives the hope to the Homme more only not to undergo the events, but to be able to control the course of the Histoire and to forge the Futur with its way. About what does speak one exactly? What does it really hide behind this word magic, supposed to constitute a remedy Miracle for the men and the Organization S of this beginning of Siècle? ”

Why the projects exist do?

According to Boutinet, “to try L `development of an anthropology of the project, it is to seek to include/understand how the project in various cultural units functions” (263) Gold, Boutinet is limited throughout its work to the Western way to conceive and lead projects. The conclusion outlines consequently a vast domain for future explorations. It gives nevertheless already some aspects to be taken into account during this exploration. There would be four “dimensions constitutive of the figure of the concerning project” four distinct scientific approaches (279):

vital need (biology),
existential stake (phenomenology),
the pragmatic prospect (praxeology),
cultural opportunity (ethnology).

Although the environment of the project is basically positive (one wants to change something and one believes that it is possible) Boutinet also evokes the transitory character, random, perishable of any project. The hope is very often tinted of doubt, satisfaction in front of the results mitigated of disappointment, because reality seldom corresponds to the image dreamed at the time of the design of the project. The existential anguish, occulted during the time of the dream and the action, is pointed as soon as the moment of the achievement came. In a ceaseless escape ahead, we pile up project on project during our existence however limited by the horizon of dead…

Project and process

For seizing well the difference in nature between the activities of the project type, one often compares them with the activities known as of " processus"

Opé rations	Projets
Univers ré pé titif, stable	Univers unknown, Innovant
Processus ré current, dé cisions ré versibles	*Processus* historic, dé cisions irré versible
Incertitude weak: variables endogè nes	Incertitude strong: variables exogè born, not contrô lables
Cash-flow positive, operation dé guarantee a bé né fice	Cash-flow né gatif, it is necessary to invest before d’ to have a retour
Difficulté : to intervene quickly in the event of blocage	Difficulté : gé the RER a “ jump in l’ inconnu” complexe

Appearance of the structure of project

During several decades, the companies sought to increase their profit by reducing their costs (improvement of the process, fusions for economies of scale,…).

But today this battle is lost in advance for the companies established in the countries developed because of the irresistible competition of the countries in the process of development with the unbeatable costs of labor.

A possible solution is thus to create value in innovating constantly. The structure best adapted for this objective of innovation is that of the project. Indeed it makes it possible to manage an environment which will not last (contrary to the series production) and where the decisions will be thus irreversible.

Later, the structure of project will appear also useful for the fast resolution of problems appeared after the starting of the production.

Interest of the organization in project mode

The professional organization in “project mode” is complementary to that classically practiced by the companies since the beginning of the XXe century, namely that in “trade mode”. Besides the crossing of the 2 concepts gives rise to the matric organization Métier/Projet practiced since the years 1980 in the large industrial engineering.

The organization trade was most suitable when the pressure of time on the companies was much less large than today, in particular because of markets drawn by the request. It is a structuring adapted to the capitalization of the knowledge and know-how by the specialists trade. Unfortunately, this structure “trade” is not adapted to the behavior of the deadlines and the budgets.

The main advantage of the organization in “project mode” is thus the behavior of the times in the design and the delivery of the objects of the project and consequently of the budgets (according to old proverb “ Time is Money ”).

In addition, the organization project is also equipped with measuring instruments of the costs “on all the floors” so that each decision maker can always know, at any moment, which costs a project and which are the already committed financial resources. This characteristic suitable for the organization in “project mode” then makes it possible to apply policies of concerning management the “piloting of project” (ex: estimated planning, measurement of the drifts, corrective action plan,…).

The place of the projects in the company

The projects are generally carried out by companies. The goal of the project being to bring innovation to increase the value of the product and thus to have competitive products. Only, the projects do not have all the same width and all the companies are different. Thus, one sees appearing different type of company to project:

The company which carries out projects in co-operation is a company which does not have the capacities or the resources to create a project by its own means. It thus calls upon outside firms to carry out certain parts of the project. The Sous-traitance can relate to several parts of the project and not only the production as it is often thought. Indeed, a company can call upon another company for the production, but also the design, the aspect marketing… the motor-car industry is an good example of the companies which carry out projects in co-operation.

The projects which are carried out by several companies are projects which call upon completely different fields and which are thus managed by several companies on level of equivalent investment. The organization is centered on the project and not on the companies. Thus, these types of projects have the need for a coordinator of project to manage various human resources. The field of the BTP is governed by this type of organization where each company bring a particular competence (electricity, roof, masonry,…).

The last form of companies relates to those which have the capacity to carry out small projects with the center even of the company and which for moreover great projects call upon other companies for a JV (Joint venture). These companies have a multitude of resources, they are thus generally of big sizes. Thus, they carry out in the company a multitude of small internal projects. Concerning the great projects, for reasons of resource or taking risk, these companies call upon other companies to carry out projects in collaboration differently called of the JV. The industry of new technologies uses this type of organization to have better a Compétitivité in a difficult market.

Typologies of project in the structural entities

Actors of the project

Random links:

Alfred Newman | Montchaude | Jason Flemyng | Battle of Saint-Eustace | HSC (aviation)

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