Did you ever think about how many types of projects there are? And is there any specific way to categorize them? So what Project types do you know?
Hey Crizpers, I have been receiving questions about the project types. Specifically, people were asking what other types of projects, but IT there could be. Therefore, I feel it worth drawing an article on this topic. Today we will discuss what types of projects could be. AND I would much appreciate it if you could share your thoughts and tips on the projects’ categorization.
Projects Categorization
I bet you know that:
Project Management is generic, cross-functional and multi-applicable.
This means, PM’s craft is distributed throughout all the industries where people are creating or inventing something unique and valuable.
That should be said, obviously there are many Types of Projects. To define them we need to choose the ways to categorize Project. And there could be a lot of options depending on your needs and imagination. Therefore, I would like to suggest some ways of the projects categorization. They should help us to define what types of projects could be. I encourage you to share what types of projects you know.
By Industry
I guess this is the most common option to define the project type. If we consider categorizing projects by industry, we are going to get hundreds of them. At the end of the day, how many industries do you know? As we are all aware, Project Management is generic, cross-functional and multi-applicable; thus as many industries there are, as many project types could be. Here we can come up with the list like:
- IT
- Design
- Marketing
- Constructions
- Healthcare
- Real Estate
- Manufacturing, and so on.
In a couple of words, Projects are delivered in every industry where people are inventing or creating something unique and valuable.
By Purpose
It is another way to define the type a project belongs to. I would look into this kind of categorization from two perspectives. Internal / External and Home-Made / Outsourced. Let’s knock it down.
Internal
These are the projects that are delivered within the organization and for this organization. Let’s say, new software tool implementation for the company use; company servers scaling; product delivery pipeline modification; and so on.
External
Projects that we deliver for someone outside of the organization, usually for clients. This could be any sort of custom development; logo and brand design; construction design and similar things. The main criteria is to deliver a project for an external client, someone who has ordered it.
Home-Made
This is common to the internal projects, but has a bit different shade. This means that the project is being developed within the organization. And for doing this we use the resources of our organization only.
Outsourced
Here we are usually acting as a client. We are giving our project, or part of it to someone else to be delivered. In this situation we are ordering from another organization.
By Area of Application
Now things are getting more interesting. Categorizing projects by area of application means we are diversifying them by the specific application field. I usually utilize the categories below:
Research
These are the projects where the outcome could be not tangible. Here we are applying efforts to gather, analyze and define, and usually work with information only. Examples:
- Market Research
- HR Research
- Customer Experience Research
- Industry Solution Research, etc.
Internal Automation
Usually this is about internal projects. Such endeavors oriented on the improvement, modification or implementation of the solutions within the organization. E.g.:
- New Equipment Setup
- New Tool / Technology Implementation
- New Process / Procedure Improvement / Implementation
Development
Projects within this category are intended to reach tangible goals that we could touch and feel. For instance:
- New Product
- New Solution
- New Service
- New Functionality
- Improvement / Modification of the Existing Products / Services / Solutions
By Methodology
Here is where all the fun comes from the Project Management perspective. We could build as many types of projects as many methodologies are currently known. But to cut this off, I would suggest categorization within the following types:
- Predictive (Waterfall)
- Adaptive (Agile)
- Hybrid (Could be any hybrid of either adaptive methodologies, as well as the hybrid of Waterfall and Agile).
By the way, there is a free cheat-sheet for the projects categorization. If you want to have one, you can find it here.
Also, don’t forget to check this intro video with the overview of the project types.
Let me know what project types do you define and what is your approach to the projects categorization?
Cheers!