What Is Business Project Management?
A business project is classified by content or purpose. Business projects are intended to achieve defined business objectives and are aligned with a company’s business strategy.
Business projects can be called many different names, such as internal projects, administrative projects, or functional projects. It’s important to note that all projects, regardless of type, must meet certain criteria to be considered projects. The primary two requirements are that they are both temporary and unique. This means they have a defined end date and are not repeatable, ongoing tasks.
Three types of business projects
There are three main types of business projects a company can implement:
- Strategic projects: These are focused on achieving a high-level business strategy. For example, a company may determine its marketing strategy is to offer the lowest-priced option. To achieve this, they may launch a project to create a process for analyzing market prices and lowering their prices accordingly.
- Operational projects: These projects are not tied to the overall strategy but taken on to meet some type of business objective. Upgrading a software system to the latest version could be an operational project.
- Recurring projects: Recurring projects happen regularly, but still must be unique and temporary. A good example is technology development projects. If you have a cell phone, it is likely part of a numbered series such as the Samsung Galaxy 9 or Apple iPhone 8. Releases come out every year, or even twice a year, meaning the project to upgrade a phone is recurring. However, each version has a defined release date and unique functionality or requirements.
What is business project management?
Business project management is the management of internal business projects undertaken to further a company’s strategy or objectives. The fundamentals are the same, but some aspects of business project management can be different:
- There is no external client. The end customer is the business.
- There is no revenue. The project will have a cost but no revenue, as it’s not for an external party.
- The project returns are measured differently. A business project does not have a profit margin (sale value minus costs). Other methods are used for assessing benefits, such as the internal rate of return.
Further Reading:
- How Marketing Teams Are Leading Business Transformation with Wrike
- What Is Digital Asset Management (DAM) & Why Should Marketers Care?
- The Costs of Having the Wrong Work Management Technology
- Project Management Basics: 6 Steps to a Foolproof Project Plan
- Preparing to Take On a Business Process Management Software
Artem Gurnov
Artem is a Director of Account Development at Wrike. He previously held the role of Project Manager, overseeing a team of customer success managers (CSMs). Over the years of building teams and scaling business processes, he has successfully deployed multiple projects, from automating client outreach to setting up work prioritization tools for sales reps and CSMs.