Why This Lesson Matters
You have been asked to coordinate projects at work. Before you build plans or reports, you need two basic things clear:
- How to tell whether a piece of work is a project at all.
- What a coordinator actually does each day, and how that differs from a project manager.
By the end of this lesson you will have written a one-line definition of a small project and checked it.
Step 1: Tell a Project Apart from Routine Work
The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result." Most organisations have two kinds of work:
- Projects: one-off pieces of work that create something new and then stop.
- Business-as-usual (BAU): repeating work that keeps the organisation running, such as paying invoices, answering support calls or running payroll. US workplaces often call this operations or ongoing operations.
To decide which kind of work you are looking at, apply four tests. A project passes all four.
| Test | Question to ask | Office move example |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary | Does it have a clear start and end? | Starts 1 March, ends when staff are working in the new office on 30 June |
| Unique output | Does it produce something that did not exist before? | A new, working office for this team at this address |
| Defined goal | Is there a specific, agreed aim? | 40 staff relocated with no more than one day of lost work |
| Limited resources | Are budget, people and time fixed or capped? | £25,000 budget, two facilities staff, one IT technician |
"Temporary" does not mean short. A project can last two weeks or two years. What matters is that it ends.
Watch for this trap: the same subject can be a project or BAU. Moving the office once is a project. Cleaning the office every week is BAU, because it repeats and never ends.
Do this now: think of three tasks on your desk. For each one, ask the four questions. Any task that fails one test is probably BAU.
Step 2: Learn the Five Stages of a Small Project
Every project, large or small, goes through a life cycle. PMI's PMBOK Guide names five groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing. This course uses plainer names:
- Start: confirm why the project exists, what it should achieve and who is sponsoring it.
- Plan: work out the tasks, timings, costs, people and risks.
- Deliver: do the work.
- Control: track progress against the plan and deal with problems and changes.
- Close: hand over the result, confirm it is accepted, record lessons and release the team.
Note: Control is not a separate block of time. It runs alongside Deliver. You keep checking progress for as long as the work continues.
Step 3: Know the Coordinator's Tasks in Each Stage
The coordinator keeps the project organised, informed and on track. Your typical tasks:
| Stage | Coordinator's main tasks |
|---|---|
| Start | Gather background documents, set up the first meeting, take notes, draft the one-line project definition |
| Plan | Collect task lists and estimates from the team, build the schedule, set up shared folders and trackers |
| Deliver | Book meetings, chase actions, keep documents up to date, share information between people |
| Control | Compare progress with the plan, update logs of risks and issues, prepare status reports, raise problems early |
| Close | Collect sign-offs, archive files, organise the lessons-learned session, hand over to the people who will run the result |
Step 4: Understand Coordinator vs Project Manager
The two roles work closely but carry different authority.
- Project manager (PM): accountable for the whole project. Makes the key decisions on scope, budget, schedule and risk. Leads the team and answers to the sponsor.
- Project coordinator: runs day-to-day administration and communication. Tracks progress, keeps records, organises people and escalates (passes upwards) issues to the PM or sponsor.
In short, the coordinator keeps the work moving. The final decision belongs to the PM.
On small projects: there may be no PM. You may coordinate the work while a manager or sponsor makes the decisions. Do this: ask your manager directly, "Who decides if scope, budget or dates need to change?" Write the answer down. That person is who you escalate to.
Step 5: Template: Write a One-Line Project Definition
Fill in this sentence for a small project of your own, or use the office move:
We will [unique output] so that [defined goal], by [end date], using [budget and people].
Worked example:
We will move the finance team to the second floor of Riverside House so that all 40 staff are working there with no more than one day of lost work, by 30 June, using a £25,000 budget, two facilities staff and one IT technician.
How to check it
Go through these four checks in order. If any one fails, rewrite the sentence.
- Temporary: is there a specific end date? ("Soon" or "ongoing" fails.)
- Unique output: does it name something specific that will exist at the end?
- Defined goal: could someone check at the end whether it was achieved?
- Limited resources: are budget and people stated?
If your sentence passes all four, you have a project. In the next level you will turn this line into a one-page project brief.
Key Takeaways
- A project is temporary, has a unique output, a defined goal and limited resources. Work that repeats is business-as-usual (US: operations).
- The five stages are Start, Plan, Deliver, Control, Close. Control runs alongside Deliver.
- The coordinator organises, tracks, records, communicates and escalates. The project manager makes the key decisions and is accountable.
- Find out early who has authority to approve changes.
- A one-line definition that passes all four tests is the foundation for everything that follows.