Administration vs. Project management

All organizations, regardless of their dedication and focus, have operational activities related to their daily functions that are necessary to manage the sale and production of their goods and services. These administrative activities are characterized by:

→ Being continuous and consistent, without necessarily having a specific start and end date;

→ Having a regular periodicity;

→ Being directly related to the company’s objective; and

→ Not requiring external support from the organization to be carried out.

The main characteristic of Project Management is, as its name indicates, its applicability to projects, which by nature have a limited execution time and clear and specific objectives. Every organization carries out projects, both internal and external, at any given time.

To effectively manage these projects, it is necessary to optimize resources and maintain the focus of existing ones on the organization’s key operational activities, which should not be neglected.

Project Management can be considered as the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and practices to effectively execute a project, with clear and defined objectives in a limited time.

It is important to consider the knowledge and technical skills that the team requires when executing a particular project, since it will be responsible for guaranteeing compliance with the objectives set by the organization. When these knowledge and skills differ from the key activities of the organization, or the implementation of the project exceeds the current available resources of the company, it is sensible to resort to an external Project Manager to supplement its execution.