If you are new to project management, you are going to come across a number of different terms that all sound the same. Here are some questions you may have:
- Is project management the same as program management?
- How is a milestone different from a KPI?
- What is the difference between a project task and deliverable?
Each of these terms carry unique significance and cannot be used interchangeably. So, in this article, we will discuss the meaning and significance of these terms and how they are different from one another.
Project Task
A task refers to any work that has a definite outcome associated with it. A project is thus a combination of different tasks. If you can imagine a project as a car, tasks are the various components that make a car – the tires, doors, steering wheel, windows, and so on.
Just like it is with a car, all these various tasks are interdependent on each other. A delay in completing one of the many tasks can have a cascading effect on the entire project timelines.
As a project manager, you handle tasks on a daily basis – but your eye needs to be on the prize, which is the overall execution of the project.
Why do we need tasks when we have a project
If a task is merely a smaller component of a project, why exactly do we need them? Can’t we simply have one project and work towards that goal?
This is a question that crops up quite often in project management training. The answer to this is that while the project may have its own goals or objectives, reaching it is not possible without meeting several other goals or objectives.
Let’s go back to imagining a project as a car. If you are a project manager for Ford or Honda, your role is to manufacture a car successfully. It’s called a success if the car looks like what you have designed and works when you pour fuel in its tank.
But, you can’t really call it successful yet. What happens if the airbag is not working? Or, if the color of the car looks slightly different from what was planned? The car still looks and works as intended.
This is why we have tasks. Tasks break the project down into smaller components. It is a lot more effective to pay attention to the smaller objectives this way.
An experienced project manager will know to break down a project into tasks and sub-tasks in such a way that every small requirement is accounted for, and met while building the project.
Milestone Vs. Deliverable
Now that you have a fine idea of what a task is, let’s go ahead and define what a project milestone is, and how it is different from a deliverable.
Project deliverables are like a to-do list. It refers to the product or document that can quantifiably verify the completion of a task or the project itself.
A milestone is the successful production of a deliverable.
There can be several deliverables to be produced over the course of a project and when each of these deliverables are produced, a milestone is said to have been met.
Going back to the car example, a project manager may split the project into discrete tasks like tires, steering wheel, gearbox, and so on.
The deliverable in each of these cases is the production of these individual products.
Once these individual products have been tested and deemed perfect, the specific milestone is set to have been complete.
How to ensure project deliverables are met
Studying the course of a project is simple in theory. However, things do not always go as planned in practice.
There are a number of risks that a project manager should account for while building a project timeline. Key people working on your project may quit, your organization may cut your budget on the projects, your stakeholders may fail to complete dependencies on time. Or, as we have all witnessed recently, a virus like Covid-19 could disrupt almost everything you have been working on.
At a broad level, these risks can be classified as technical, management-related, organizational, and external.
For the most part, technical and management-related risks can be controlled and minimized with proper planning. Using the right project management tools can help the project manager stay on top of things and correct course before it is too late. This is especially relevant today as more businesses are opting for remote working tools amid the pandemic.
There are some technical risks that are outside the purview of the project manager. Research-oriented projects are a good example of this. For example, if you are working on an AI related project, a number of tasks here dealing with is uncharted territory. The risk of failure or incompletion is high. A project manager here must not only know to set an adequate buffer for various tasks, but also know when to wrap the project up as incomplete or unsuccessful.
Conclusion
Project management is as much science as is art. A certified project manager will be qualified to standardize every project to its bare elements so that they can be effectively broken down into specific tasks with their own deliverables and milestones. If you are just starting out, it is highly recommended that you sign up for a project management certification course – there are also PMP courses online that can help you achieve the necessary qualifications necessary to handle projects effectively.
