P Company manufactures and sells a range of children's clothing through its retail shops and is currently designing a website in order to allow customers to purchase products online. The project is a major investment for P Company and it is seen by the Board of Directors as being a critical strategic development to ensure the continued success of the business in a highly competitive market.

Distinguish the characteristics of the website development project in P Company from the characteristics of 'business as usual' work.

The website development project will have a number of characteristics or attributes that differentiate it from 'business as usual' work:

• A project is usually undertaken to meet two sets of objectives: single relating to the accomplishment of the customer needs of scope (i.e. the deliverables), quantity, quality and cost, and the other relating to the achievement of the organisation's objectives of profitability and reputation etc.
• The project will have a clearly explained start and end time and will usually be explained in terms of the scope, schedule and cost. In this case, the objective of the project is to make a new website. The project will be focussed on the tasks required to design and execute the new website within the stated time period. All tasks must be scheduled to meet this pre-determined end date.