In 1997 an evaluation project was launched with the purpose of finding out what traces could be found of a national change project that was terminated three years ago. In this paper some findings from the project, are presented and related to the issue of project work and the experiences of working in a project. Critical reflections on what can be learned from that are finally made. Experiences of the participants are related to one theme in the study, "deviance". In human relations deviance from what is regarded as "normal", "routine", "predictable" is known to arouse envy and rage and those feelings must be contained in one way or another. Projects in themselves can be regarded as "temporary deviance in a permanent organization". Issues arising from the relation between project work and deviance are - the participants motives for participation; - time; - organization; - identity; - project culture. Some conclusions indicate that projects can be regarded as deviant structures in a permanent work organization, and thereby create tension between temporary and permanent structures. If this is a valid conclusion one can ask why so much work is project based. Is it so that this is a way of coping with individual feelings in an organizational context? Is it so that like the magicians conjuring tricks leading attention away from what is really happening, projects are created to cope with feelings of envy, rage and distrust at an individual level and transform them into group dynamics?