“… a tool to manage the project end to end.”

Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Prepositions

I saw this in a presentation.

Problem:
A preposition is missing.

Explanation:
The presenter wanted to tell his audience about the extent to which the tool would let the tool’s users manage the project.

When I first read “a tool to manage the project end to end”, I put “project” and “end” together. I believed that the presenter meant “project’s end” when I saw “project end”. However, I then was thrown by the seemingly extraneous “to end” that followed “project end”.

As I listened to the presenter, I realized that the tool lets its users manage “the project” (not “the project end”) from the beginning of the project to the end of the project.

Another way to state this is from one end of the project to the other end of the project.

Simplifying this phrase, we get the adverbial phrase from end to end and therefore the simplest solution to the problem.

Solution:
“… a tool to manage the project from end to end.”