Project management versus operations management: A comparative study

The two fields of operations management and project management are widely practiced in industry. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there exists no specific study that highlights the differences and/or similarities between the two in the understanding of the practitioners. Thus, this study is undertaken to identify and study the differences between project management and operations management from the perspectives of practitioners in industry at the Sultanate of Oman. This paper aims to have a better and a deeper understanding on each field's definition, characteristics, responsibilities and key personnel roles and required skills. Accordingly, a set of hypothesis were drawn from the literature and a specific survey was designed to test these hypothesis. The survey is then distributed to practitioners in Oman and results from 100 respondents were collected, analyzed and discussed. The study has revealed that indeed there exists a strong Alliance between project management and operations management. This Alliance may cause practitioners to mix between the two fields.