Have You Defined Your Project?

This is my “go to” question, and I use it often. This is usually one of the first questions I ask of a prospective client who calls me looking for help with a project that has “gone off the rails.”

I have asked this question a few times this month and I found the responses interesting. Recently, I have gotten responses that have range from “Of course we did” to “What does that mean?”

If you find yourself in a situation where your project has “gone off the rails” my suggestion would be to ask this question, internally, of the Project Sponsor, the Project Team, and key Stakeholders. Other questions could include:

o   What is your understanding of this project?

o   What is the objective of this project? What problem are we trying to solve?

o   How will this project benefit the organization?

Alert! If everyone on the team responds to these questions with different answers – the project could be in serious trouble. You may not notice it right away, but there will be significant challenges that could have, easily, been avoided.

My observation, over the past several years, is that new projects are being identified around the clock – there is no shortage of great ideas! Take it from a Project Manager – we love this! But (there’s always a “but”…) just because we have a lot of ideas, doesn’t mean that we should apply short cuts to the proven practices of project management. One of those practices is to provide a clear, and definitive, definition of the project to the Project Team, the Stakeholders, and the organization.

 The benefit is that everyone will have the same understanding of the project –

the objective, the goal, what’s in scope, what’s out of scope and why the project is important to the organization.  

The overall objective of the project is too important to leave to interpretation. Yet, I have found that many organizations do exactly that. By not clearly articulating the objective of a project, individuals are left to their own interpretation of what the project means, what the objective is and what the deliverables might be. Can you envision how chaotic this can be? This scenario can easily lead to a project “going off the rails”.

Defining your project should be the first step in your initiation process. Answering the fundamental questions about what the project is, what are we trying to deliver and why. The output can be a Project Charter which is something that I always encourage my clients to use. Additional information in the Project Charter can include:

Project Name – I know this sounds incredibly simple, but I have been asked for help on projects that were called “BVN78-2” (or something like that!). What the heck is this? I suggest that you at least try to have a project name that is meaningful and understandable to the organization.

Project Objective – here it is…what are you looking to get from this project when it is successfully completed? What problem are you trying to solve? For instance, “Implementation of a software upgrade that will allow the organization to expand the online ecommerce business”.

Strategic Goal – is this project tied to a strategic goal? I added this to my Project Charter several years ago while studying strategy. Project management and strategy dovetail so perfectly, and this is now a common element in many discussions when defining the project. For instance, “This project aligns with Strategic Goal #3 which refers to increasing global sales by 10% this year.”

Other relevant information can include:

Assumptions – what are the assumptions on the part of the Project Sponsor or the leadership team with respect to this project?

Risks – are there any risks that we know about today? Although we are still defining the project, there may be some risks already known, or anticipated, that can be documented.

Scope – at a high level, what is IN scope vs. OUT of scope?

Milestones – are there any milestones that have already been determined based on regulatory needs, strategic activities, or tax and legal impacts?

Do yourself, the team and your organization a favor – take the time to clearly define your project!

Your action item for today? Start asking some questions! You can do this. I know you can.