So What Is a Project? 12 Thus, projects are an essential method of accomplishing the work of society. They are the means by which change is accomplished, including but not limited to the development of new products, creation of new facilities, designing a new curriculum, and many other such endeavors. However, the project manager must be knowledgeable of the other modes in which work is performed in order to complete the project within the optimum cost and schedule. THE NATURE OF PROJECTS Projects come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and degrees of complexity. That is what makes them such a challenge. Projects can be very small. The concepts have been used to considerable advantage for planning a small weekend family project, clarifying such things as: · · · · · · · identifying all the tasks that must be done understanding the sequence in which these tasks need to be done understanding which tasks could be performed by which members of the family identifying required tools and materials, so they can all be obtained in one trip to the store recognizing which activities could be performed indoors in the event of rain achieving agreement with the plan from the spouse and other family members convincing the spouse that the simple, little project is neither as simple nor as little as imagined. These same benefits were achieved in building a house, resulting in considerable savings compared to what the cost would have been without such careful planning. A review of the projects cited in the previous chapter illustrate the size and complexity of projects and how modern project man- agement has resulted in savings of both time and cost on them.