The primary drivers of change in enterprises are development initiatives. They are implemented through projects. A project is a specific initiative intended to achieve a particular objective. The objective may be to reduce the number of bakery returns, promote a new product or a new distribution channel, or create conditions for increasing customer loyalty.
Every project involves a certain defined effort. It is generally a long-term initiative that must be planned and considered in some way. Funds must be allocated to carry out the project. It cannot be a spontaneous initiative, but must be carefully planned and diligently performed in accordance with prior assumptions, taking account of time, resources, and needs. During the project, the budget, resources, or objectives may change. A project requires organization, discipline, and understanding.
The History of Project-Management Methodology
It went like this: long ago, in the days of great dams, Henry Gantt drew his bars1, and engineers could finally see whether they were on schedule instead of calculating everything in their heads. Several decades later, the US Navy added PERT and CPM—the entire mathematics of critical paths—perfect for the Polaris nuclear missiles, because it was necessary to know exactly what was delaying a launch. The PMI was formalized in 1969; PMBOK appeared, along with the entire idea that “project manager” was a profession with a textbook, an examination, and a certificate on the wall.
The software-development process, colloquially called “software,” lived according to its own rhythm, however: bureaucracy, rigid regulations, and procedures accompanied by a ton of documentation suffocated teams. Therefore, in 2001, seventeen programmers in the Utah mountains wrote the Agile Manifesto—fewer procedures, more conversation, and frequent delivery of anything that worked. From there, it was a short road to DevOps in 2009: code and infrastructure are treated as one, pipelines and tests are used, deployment happens with one click (or without a click), and failures are resolved without searching for someone to blame.
Large corporations felt that they, too, wanted to be “agile,” and SAFe emerged; its latest major version is 6.0, released in 2023. It combines Lean, Agile, and DevOps and distributes them across the portfolio, program, and team levels.
The entire philosophy for 2025 can be reduced to “small packages of work + automate + measure in real time + build a feedback culture.” The end of the project is not the objective; the objective is the moment when the user actually uses what we have released—the sooner, the better.
This is what project work looks like today. No more pretending to work and be involved. No more hiding behind a cabinet or becoming invisible. Everyone must be involved. Projects offer quite good earnings, but involvement is essential. This is the essence of the current approach to project implementation.
1 Henry Gantt, an American engineer, needed a simple tool for visually grasping production and drew bars on a timeline. The idea proved practical enough to be used later in megaprojects such as the Hoover Dam, and it remained a standard thereafter.
Key Project-Management Concepts
I would now like to present ten fundamental project terms, with examples from the operations of a small bakery and confectionery. This will allow a bakery owner to translate theory into the practice of running the business easily.
1. Project
Definition (PMBOK Guide): a temporary undertaking with a clearly defined beginning and end, carried out to deliver a unique product, service, or result. A project differs from operational work in terms of repeatability and a limited time horizon.
Bakery example: implementation of a new line of organic-certified spelt challah. Start date: September 1; completion date: November 30, when the product is to become permanently available in the regular product range. The operational, day-to-day baking of existing rolls is not a project—it is routine activity.
2. Project Life Cycle
Definition: the sequence of phases through which every project passes, irrespective of the selected methodology (waterfall, agile, or hybrid). The classical PMI scheme comprises initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.
Bakery example:
| Phase | Main activities in implementing organic challah |
|---|---|
| Initiating | Analysis of the organic-bread trend, preliminary feasibility study, appointment of a project manager. |
| Planning | Development of a preliminary recipe, unit-cost calculation, Gantt schedule, identification of risks (for example, availability of organic flour). |
| Executing | Purchase of ingredients, test baking, organic certification, training of the sales team. |
| Monitoring and controlling | Weekly quality measurements (moisture, taste), cost-versus-budget control, schedule updates. |
| Closing | Final acceptance of the recipe, archiving of certification documentation, lessons learned concerning the organic-products market. |
3. Kick-off Meeting
Definition: the first formal meeting of the entire project team and key stakeholders, organized after the main planning work has been completed and immediately before implementation begins. Its purpose is to agree on a shared understanding of the scope, roles, and manner of cooperation.
Bakery example: one week before test baking begins, the project manager convenes the owners, technologists, sales representative, and accounting department. The agenda includes discussion of the project charter, review of the schedule, confirmation of the budget, and agreement on the frequency of progress reporting.
4. Triple Constraint
Definition: an interdependent arrangement of the three principal project parameters: scope, schedule, and budget. A change in one directly affects the others.
Bakery example: if the management board decides to introduce a whole-grain version in parallel with the organic challah (an expansion of project scope), it will be necessary either to extend the deadline or increase the budget for additional tests and raw materials.
5. Project Charter
Definition: a document approved by the sponsor that formally grants authority to the project manager and defines the objectives, measures of success, principal deliverables, high-level in-scope and out-of-scope items, budget, milestones, key risks, and team structure.
Bakery example: the “Organic Challah 2025” project charter includes, among other things: the objective—increasing the share of organic bread sales to 15% of the portfolio; a budget of PLN 22,000 for recipe research, certification, and marketing; and the success criterion—a positive tasting score above 8/10 from a customer panel.
6. Scope Creep
Definition: the unauthorized, gradual expansion of project scope after its approval, without corresponding changes to the budget and schedule. It is most often caused by stakeholder pressure or imprecise provisions in the project charter.
Bakery example: during implementation, a local distributor suggests that the challah be sliced and vacuum-packed. If the project manager accepts the idea without renegotiating time and costs, there is a risk of delaying the launch and exceeding the budget—this is classic scope creep. It used to be called a change request.
7. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Definition: a hierarchical breakdown of the entire project scope into increasingly smaller tasks that can be planned and assigned responsibility. The WBS provides a bridge between the definition of scope and creation of the schedule and budget.
Bakery example (fragment of a WBS):
- Organic Challah Project
- Recipe
- Selection of raw materials
- Test baking
- Sensory validation
- Organic certification
- Documentation audit
- Site visit
- Pilot production
- Review of oven settings
- Training of bakers
- Launch marketing
- Label design
- Social-media campaign
- Recipe
Each level goes one step deeper until tasks can be assigned to specific people and placed in a schedule.
8. Baseline
Definition: an approved, “frozen” reference point for the key project plans (scope, schedule, and budget), against which all deviations are measured.
Bakery example: the baseline budget for the “Organic Challah 2025” project was set at PLN 22,000. In a periodic report, the cost of organic raw materials proves to be 12% higher. The project manager presents this difference as “Cost Variance vs. Baseline” and proposes corrective action—an alternative supplier or a recipe modification.
9. Gantt Chart
Definition: a graphical representation of a schedule in the form of bars showing tasks on a timeline, specifying their start dates, end dates, durations, and dependencies.
Bakery example: the “Test Baking” bar begins on September 15 and lasts five days; “Sensory Validation” depends on its completion and starts on September 22. A dependency arrow shows the sequence, making it possible to assess quickly how a potential delay will affect subsequent milestones.
10. Deliverable
Definition: a tangible or measurable result of project work delivered to the recipient. It may be a product, service, report, or documentation.
Bakery example:
- Main deliverable—technologically approved organic spelt challah available in regular sales.
- Supporting deliverables—a complete set of organic certificates, a baking procedure in the HACCP system, and a product label compliant with EU requirements.
Summary
Understanding the ten concepts above makes it possible to bring order even to small initiatives—from a bakery to advanced IT undertakings. A well-defined project with a charter, broken down into a clear WBS, controlled by means of a baseline and Gantt chart, and protected against scope creep significantly increases the chances that the final deliverable will meet stakeholder expectations and be delivered on time and within the assumed budget.
Wojciech Moszczyński
Wojciech Moszczyński—a graduate of the Department of Econometrics and Statistics at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, a specialist in econometrics, finance, data science, and management accounting. He specializes in optimizing production and logistics processes. He conducts research into the development and application of artificial intelligence. For years, he has been involved in popularizing machine learning and data science in business communities.