In this conversation, Todd R. Zabelle and James E. Craig, PE discuss the differences between construction projects and deployments. Construction projects tend to be focused on a single site, with multiple suppliers providing materials and resources for the project. Maintenance projects also involve a single site and require the identification of necessary work. In contrast, deployments involve many suppliers providing materials and resources for multiple sites, with large-scale projects such as technology deployments involving thousands of sites.

Project management can be viewed as having developed over 3 distinct time frames, or Eras, in response to the evolving nature and needs of projects over time. Viewing project management through the framework of the 3 Eras provides a number of useful insights described in this article. Conventional project management, as codified by the Project Management Institute, spans the first two Eras.