33. Neverending Story

There is a big difference between projects and ongoing processes: projects end.

Why is it important to remember this? Because projects that don’t end turn into ongoing processes, and what is necessary to solve projects is not necessary to solve ongoing processes.

On the other hand, it’s common for projects to start and then changes emerge.

That’s normal. That’s expected. (What’s abnormal is acting as if the scope should be fixed.)

As a result, they don’t end when they should have ended.

They become ongoing processes. When that happens, the team’s morale crumbles.

The lack of a clear definition about completion demoralizes.

So, there are two major methods to address the work:

• Projects: they have a clear, known, and agreed upon completion.
• Ongoing processes: they do not have a defined completion.

We shouldn’t treat Projects as Ongoing Processes or vice versa.

Corollary: Not every project deserves to be one.