Categories of Projects in a Company

In one word, projects are change. Projects change an existing situation into a new situation. In the technical world this is called State-Action-State and this concept is widely applied. The concept of State-Action-State is also useful to understand the categories of projects in a company.

In a company, there are only 4 categories of projects and each project falls into one or more categories dependent on what it changes. These categories are

• Change in Organization: Projects in this category intend to introduce structural changes in the organization. These can be re-organization, change of responsibilities, mergers of areas, or new the introduction of new forms of organization, e.g. a change from hierarchical to an agile organization.

• Change in Process: These are projects that aim to change existing processes. The objective is to make the process more efficient, less error prone, more comfortable, faster or generating a higher quality output. Projects in this category deal for instance with improved data processes, the introduction of new software or hardware, AI, machines or better organizational procedures or information flows.

• Change in Products: Every product has a life cycle and at some point it will reach the end of its life. Projects in this category deal with the renewal, improvement and replacement of existing products or with a new product development. A product can be a product for an (external) end customer, but also a product for an (internal) customer such as another department.

• Change in Resources: Every company needs resources to generate products. Resources are scarce and valuable for a company. For that reason a company should make best use of its resources. Therefore, there exist projects that aim to better maintain, effectively improve, or more efficiently use the resources available.