I'm want to make the distinction in my org around projects & application maintenance. Are software enhancements, bug fix and releases classified as projects? We have a PMO for projects that fall under the traditional definition of a project (unique, temporary, measurable outcome, etc.). But we also have other app group where they have PMs managing bug fixes, releases and maintenance as projects. It's confusing. Any help would be great. Thx! Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Generally speaking, a release is defined as the production deployment of a group of changes to the system. The content of the release could be enhancements, fixes, or a combination of both. Each release in itself is usually treated as a project, even if sometimes is led by organizational managers. But it has a scope (list of features and/or fixes), a plan, timelines, budget, allocated resources etc, and especially it is unique (you’ll never do exactly the same thing again), so it is a project and should be managed as such.
Emergency fixes on the other hand are maintenance / regular operations. They are handled individually, have no distinct budget, no timeline (as fast as possible to bring production on-line again) etc.
