First, a project is temporary. A project’s duration might be just one week or it might go on for years, but every project has an end date. You might not know that end date when the project begins, but it’s out there somewhere in the future. Projects are not the same as ongoing operations, although the two have a great deal in common. Ongoing operations, as the name suggests, go on indefinitely; you don’t establish an end date. Examples include most activities of accounting and human resources departments. People who run ongoing operations might also manage projects; for example, a manager of a human resources department for a large organization might plan a college recruiting fair. Yet, projects are distinguished from ongoing operations by an expected end date, such as the date of the recruiting fair.