Project Management

Please login or join to subscribe to this thread

When is a project a large project?

linkedin twitter facebook   Information Technology   Organizational Project Management   Using PMI Standards  
avatar
Sofia Capito Ottobrunn, Bavaria, Germany
Is there a PMI definition for a large project? Or any other definition? Are there more levels than small project, project, large project?

I am looking for something including # of FTE, # of employees being involved, budget, years, etc.

Anything will help...

Thank you very much!
Sort By:
< 1 2 >
avatar
Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sofia, first question is: why it that`s matters to you? Believe me, it has no sence. On the other hand. large is a subjective matter that your organization has to define what does means if it matters for achieving some objectives. To give some examples of my personal life I lead a usd 24M that must end in 9 month while in other hand I lead a usd 5M project that must end in 3 years.
avatar
Igor Zdorovyak Director of Projects| Immunovant Fair Lawn, Nj, United States
Hi Sofia,

University of Oxford defines large IT projects as those with initial price tags exceeding $15 million. And if you want to compare to the next level are megaprojects which attracts lot of public attention due to substantial impacts on communities, environment, and budgets, and many cost more than US$1 billion.

Hope that help,
Igor
...
1 reply by Sofia Capito
Mar 19, 2017 7:43 AM
Sofia Capito
...
Igor, thanks a lot! I understand this is one of many possible definitions and this is IT specific and of course "it depends". Nevertheless: it gives a rough idea and this is exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you very much for sharing!
avatar
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Hi Sofia,

As some of my fellow colleagues mentioned, and as far as I am aware, there is no definition in the PMBOK for Large or Small Projects as there are many factors involved. Distinguishing between Large and Small Projects depends on:

1- Project Value: Some consider 50 Mil as large, 200 Mil Mega and 50 Small

2- Industry: This can also vary from industry to another. In construction for example, 50 Mil is a decent size project but you can't consider it large.

3- No. of Employees in a Project: In construction projects it can go from 30 to 10,000 people.

4- Complexity of the Project

You can use any of these items to classify the projects you've worked on or a combination of all of them and when you compare, you compare with projects in the surrounding areas.

Hope this helps.
avatar
Sofia Capito Ottobrunn, Bavaria, Germany
Mar 07, 2017 5:36 PM
Replying to Igor Zdorovyak
...
Hi Sofia,

University of Oxford defines large IT projects as those with initial price tags exceeding $15 million. And if you want to compare to the next level are megaprojects which attracts lot of public attention due to substantial impacts on communities, environment, and budgets, and many cost more than US$1 billion.

Hope that help,
Igor
Igor, thanks a lot! I understand this is one of many possible definitions and this is IT specific and of course "it depends". Nevertheless: it gives a rough idea and this is exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you very much for sharing!
< 1 2 >

Please login or join to reply

Content ID:
ADVERTISEMENTS

"Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?"

- Charlie McCarthy (Edgar Bergen)

ADVERTISEMENT

Sponsors







Newsletters

Jun 17: 7 Ways to Show Business Acumen Every Day
Jun 3: The Career Problem Facing New PMs
May 20: Your PM Career as a Project Life Cycle

See all newsletters