Process Management vs. Project Management - What's the difference?

The fact that companies are overflowing with a wide variety of tasks and processes should come as no surprise to anyone who has made it this far. In order to somehow keep track of this, a number of organizational methods have been developed over the years, including the two that give this article its title: process management and project management. We will look at the differences between the two below!

To begin...an AI-based comparison

Who (like me) belongs to the "first movers", who since this year consult ChatGPT instead of Google for such a problem, might have already stumbled over this comparison (I quote) at the right prompt to the AI helper:

"Process management is like filing a tool to make it better, while project management is like assembling a new tool to achieve a specific goal"

On the basis of this metaphor, a first statement can already be made about the nature of both methods: Process management deals with recurring workflows, while project management refers to one-time events. Good for a start? Very nice.

Process Management - The Everyday Hero

Of course, the comparison can also be made in more detail. Process management is trivially much more closely linked to the daily "doing" of a company, since it monitors the recurring work processes in a company, some of which are carried out several times a day. However, the benefits of process management do not stop at the mere monitoring of processes, but also relate to the improvement of processes. Process management should help to improve the effectiveness or even the efficiency of a process and thus ensure that tasks are completed more effectively. In this way, process management can help companies to reduce costs or to improve the quality of their own products/services/workflows in order to increase customer satisfaction. In this sense, process management can also be used to respond better to customer needs.

Natürlich gibt es, bei aller Euphorie über den Nutzen von Prozessmanagement, auch ein paar Makel. So ist die (Erst-)Implementierung von Prozessmanagement häufig mit einem großen administrativen Aufwand verbunden, der (speziell bei falscher Durchführung und Herangehensweise) viel Zeit und Ressourcen fressen kann. Auf der anderen Seite muss Prozessmanagement auch so holistisch angegangen werden, dass eben auch die gesamte Belegschaft mitgenommen wird (shameless plug: wie genau das aussehen kann, haben wir unter anderem hier zusammengetragen <3), da sich sonst Widerständeinnerhalb des Unternehmens und der Mitarbeiter entwickeln können.

Project management - For the special occasions

Project management, on the other hand, deals with the planning, execution and monitoring of (drum roll please) projects. These are limited in time and pursue a specific goal; project management therefore concerns much more specific and, above all, infrequently occurring to one-off processes that take place in a company. Project management works in a very result-oriented and focused way in order to keep track of all aspects of a project. Projects often take place within a clearly defined time frame in which they are to be completed. At the same time, projects also have predetermined budgets that should not be exceeded either. Project management is therefore designed to be effective. In this sense, projects also often have a high degree of predictability (although reality often looks...different... *cries in BER*).

Of course, project management also has some disadvantages, first of all the limited applicability of the method: since project management just deals with NOT (or very rarely) recurring processes, it is not suitable for more frequently recurring workflows; thus, it works only in its delimited time frame. At the same time, project management (or projects in general) thus carries a significantly higher risk than the recurring workflows of process management due to the increased complexity. In addition, project management also involves a great deal of planning and intensive coordination, which can be both time-consuming and cost-intensive.

"What do we take now?"

If you have just asked yourself this question, the answer is, as so often, "it depends". Both methods have their application purposes; for better visualization, I have brought along one application example each for process and project management (sponsored by AI), which in this case relate to a manufacturer with online sales:

An example of process management would be the optimization of the ordering process in an online store. The current ordering process is analyzed, bottlenecks and inefficient steps are identified in order to develop suggestions for improvement. Optimizing the ordering process ensures that orders are processed more quickly, which reduces costs on the one hand and increases customer satisfaction on the other.

Project management is used for the introduction of a new product. A project plan is created that defines the various steps of product development and launch (this includes market analysis, product development, marketing and sales). The project is monitored throughout to ensure that the product is launched on time and within the predetermined budget.

Conclusion: Especially the combi is useful!

The bottom line is that neither method beats the other. Process management can be used more generally, while project management has the edge in extra-daily use cases, which also occur frequently enough. However, it can also be concluded that a company should at best use both methods in order to have both daily and more specific tasks and processes under control.

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