Why most struggle with this question, and what you can do about it.
A Quick Story From a Managing Director
Last week, I asked a Managing Director of a medium‑sized business to complete a project Complexity Assessment.
• His initiative scored just one point under the formal definition of a project.
• But he insisted it was important, and to run it as a project.
• This wasn’t a one‑off.
Internal change and innovation projects often score low on complexity, but still need a project approach.
That gap in the tools inspired me to dig deeper.
Background / context
After reviewing guidance from good practice sources like the APM, PMI and others, I found little practical advice for making this distinction.
The question being, when to manage work as a Project, or Business as Usual (BAU).
So I created a decision tree and scoring system to help individuals and teams decide.
The solution
Instead of asking “Is this a project?”, a better question is:
“Is this initiative important enough to warrant the overhead of managing it more carefully using a project management approach?”
To start, check these three yes/no triggers:
| 1 Has senior management decreed it a project? | 2 Has finance given it a project number or budget? | 3 Has a customer insisted it be managed as a project? |
If yes to any of these questions, it’s probably a project.
If all three are “no,” use the complexity calculator to decide whether it’s micro, small, medium or larger.
This next tool will help you choose between a light‑touch approach or a formal project structure. Use the scoring tool to rate seven criteria from 0 to 5:
Add up the scores:
- Micro – 0 to 9 – Routine, repeatable work. Treat as BAU or individual improvement. Formal project structure may not be needed.
- Small – 10 to 14– Minor change. Use a light-touch approach. Likely a project.
- Medium – 15 to 21– Cross-team or somewhat novel change. Treat as a project.
- Large – 22 to 28 – Significant change with broader impact. Treat as a project.
- Mega – 29 to 35 – Very significant. Treat as a project.
Do One Thing
👉 Save these three trigger questions in your notes. Next time you’re asked to deliver a change, idea or goal, run through them before you decide how to manage it.
Looking for more?
Or, hit reply with “Interested” or similar. I will share a new the playbook and tool on this. I’ll simply ask for your feedback.
Greg
