The Oxford English Dictionary defines a project as “an enterprise carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.” So, for an elementary school student, a project might be a report with statistics, pictures, and facts about a country, with the aim of learning about that country.

In a business sense, a project is an undertaking that will accomplish a specific task, such as the launch of a new product, an office party, or writing a report. These projects are unique; once the project is complete, you will have a tangible result.

Projects can come in all shapes and sizes. A project to plan an office party, for example, may only consist of a dozen tasks and only need a few resources. It may only take a week or so to complete. On the other hand, a more complex project (such as the launch of a new product) may have thousands of tasks and resources. It may even have sub-projects, such as research, development, production, and marketing. All of these components may take years to complete.