How are 4p's of marketing differentiated from 5p's in Project Management?

The 4Ps of marketing is a model for enhancing the components of your ‘marketing mix’ – the way in which you take a new product or service to market. It helps you to define your marketing options in terms of price, product, promotion, and place so that your offering meets a specific customer need or demand.

The five P’s of project management are Proposal, Planning, People, Processes, and Product. (This mainly focuses on military side of project management)

Proposal

There are two parts to the proposal: requesting/evaluating them and writing a responding proposal.  The first step is to determine the requirements. The better proposal you write in response to the requirements the better success rate of the project. Second is preparing the statement of work or statement of objectives.  This describes the what and the how of how it should be done. Too much structure as well as too much flexibility can lead to problems. The third step is deciding the contract length (project).  The final step is to evaluate the proposals.

Planning

Initial planning must include budget, staffing, and schedule. A completion date is given to projects typically before a PM is put in charge. A schedule is then made by the PM to accommodate the time frame. A good PM must monitor the schedule and be prepared to change it. The initial budget is set by someone else it must be realistic. Budgets can be increased or decreased so you must be aware and ready to change with it.

People

People include project staff, subject experts, end users, upper management, and stakeholders. Good people are required to make a project successful. A PM must monitor work and results on a regular basis. Experts can include technical, financial, legal, logistics, etc. A PM should be willing to listen to their advise and contact them when needed. End users need to be involved at all stages of the project. Without their involvement, the project can be a complete waste of time. Upper management support helps a project get what it needs, financial support, acceptance, and support from others. All of these people are stakeholders and have some role in the project.

Processes

Processes set the structure of a project. They insure things are done right and one time with the schedule.

Product

To end up with a useful product good requirements for it are a must. This requires user input, documentation of requirements, and  good analysis. Requirements change over time and there is a danger of what is called “scope creep” (unanticipated growth of requirements). This can impact cost and schedule. Another downfall is gold-plated requirements (getting things that meet the requirements, but are often more than what is needed). Testing is another critical part to the product process. This can prevent misconceptions about the product and can provide correction for defaults.

All of these 5 P’s must be kept in mind by the PM. Without these 5 things a project can be headed for failure.