. For all other uses, see Project (disambiguation).
A project, as defined in the field of project management, consists of a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a product or service.[1]More generically, the Oxford English Dictionary suggests that business and science projects involve
"a collaborative enterprise, freq[uently] involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim".
The word project comes from the Latin word projectum from the Latin verb projicere, "to throw something forwards" which in turn comes from pro-, which denotes something that precedes the action of the next part of the word in time (paralleling the Greek πρό) and jacere, "to throw". The word "project" thus actually originally meant "something that comes before anything else happens". When the English language initially adopted the word, it referred to a plan of something, not to the act of actually carrying this plan out. Something performed in accordance with a project became known as an "object". This use of "project" changed in the 1950s with the introduction of several techniques for project management. Use of the word "project" evolved slightly to cover both projects and objects. However, certain projects continue to include so-called objects and object leaders.
Contemporary Western business — characterized by a modern matrix organization and a cooperative culture — currently particularly favors project-based approaches. Authoritarian, bureaucratic organizations with rigid, hierarchical structures show less enthusiasm about project-based work, which may not operate as expected in their environment due to conflicts between different cultures.
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