What determines if a specific task should be run as 'business as usual' or as a formal project?

Impact / consequences

Hi Andre, please try this one, I believe it would give you some answers https://www.thebalancecareers.com/differences-between-projects-and-business-as-usual-4084740

If the task deliverable is part of the project plan and influences the project deadline or budget should be in the ‘project ’ category;  BAU is when the deliverable ensures the operational performance / customer satisfaction / service assurance or service delivery

Continous activity without an end than it should be part of business as usual and can be part of operation whereas for project, the activity will be bound by dateline, cost and temporary resources for that particular activity.

Business as usual tasks are day to day repetitive operational activities for existing products or service whereas formal project is temporary delivered within a specified time period to meet a specific goal

It depends on strategic importance, consequences the project has, C-Level involvement, etc.

Business as usual referred in quote as ‘BAUs’ are the repetitive daily, weekly or monthly operations which helps in achieving goals of an existing projects. Formal on the other hand covers the new aspects which were either not considered in the initial scope or deliverables or have become key requirements because of project adjustments.

One aspect that hasn’t been mentioned is collaboration and creativity: If said tasks is of creative nature (meaning there is no fully clear solution yet) AND collaboration across a lot of functions is required it may be worth calling it a project.

Now of course your organization decides whether something estimated

Thanks to all that replied, it s appreciated.  For me, it’s rather simple:  A project is tasks that have a definite start and finish date, within an established budget.  BAU is the day to day tasks, most time repetitive that need to be executed to provide a product or a service - best served with policies, processes, and procedures? 

A formal project has a specific objective, needs the allocation of additional resources and has a fixed duration in time. Business as usual are activities that can be encompassed within the processes of the company, forming part of the operation of the organization. A formal project may consist of improving or revising the business as usual. I hope I have been useful to you.