Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Part I: Understanding Expectations (The Who, What, and Why of Your Project)
Part I: Understanding Expectations (The Who, What, and Why of Your Project)
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Chapter 2
Clarifying What You’re Trying
to Accomplish—andWhy
Defining YOUR
Chapter 2 01 Project with
a Statement of
Clarifying What Work
You’re Trying to
Accomplish—and
Why 02 Looking at the BIG
Picture
Marking the
03 BOUNDARIES
04 Facing the
UNKNOWNS when
Planning
Defining your Project
with a Statement of Work
Statement of Work
a written confirmation of what your project will
produce and the terms and conditions under which you will
perform your work. Both the people who requested the project
and the project team should agree to all terms in the SOW
before actual project work begins.
Project Request
Project Charter
Project Profile
Work Order
Contract
What's in a Statement of Work??
Purpose Objectives
How and why your project Specific outcomes you’ll
came to be, the scope of produce
your project, and its general
approach
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Presentation Presentation
Constraints Assumptions
Restrictions that will limit Statements about how you
what you achieve, how and will address uncertain
when you can achieve it, information as you conceive,
and their cost plan,and perform your
project
Looking at the Big
Picture Your “Purpose Statement”
shouldinclude the following information:
- identify all the people wo may use your project's results and
their specific expectations, needs and interests,
- clarify the extent of the project's work and describe your
strategies for accomplishing major project activities.
Looking at the Big
Picture Identifying the Initiator
1. Ask the person who assigns you the project whether she originated
the idea.
2. If that person’s didn’t initiate the idea, ask:
Who gave her the assignment?
Who else, if anyone, was involved in passing the assignment to her?
Who had the original idea for the project?
3. Check with any other people you identified in Step2 and ask them the
same questions.
4. Check the following written records that may confirm who originally
had the idea:
minutes
correspondence and emails
reports of planning or feasibility studies
Looking at the Big
Picture
Sometimes the best champion is one whose support you never have to use.
Looking at the Big Considering people who’ll
Picture implement the RESULTS of YOUR
project
When you clearly understand the needs your project must satisfy, you can:
• Choose project activities that enable you to accomplish the true desired
results (see Chapter 4 for information on identifying project activities).
• Monitor performance during and at the end of the project to ensure that
you’re meeting the real needs (see Chapter 12 for more information on
how to track a project during performance).
• Realize when the projectisn’t meeting the real needs and suggest
modifying or canceling it.
See whether your organization performed a formal benefit-cost analysis for
your project. A benefit-cost analysis (see Chapter 1 for further details) is a
formal identification and assessment of:
The benefit-cost analysis documents the results that people were counting on
when they decided to proceed with your project. Therefore, the analysis is an
important source for the real needs that your project should address.
Looking at the Big Emphasizing the importance of
Picture YOUR project to the organization
Your project’s perceived value depends on its intended benefits and people’s
awareness of those benefits. Take the following steps to help people
understand how your project will support the organization’s priorities:
DescribeintheBackgroundportionofyourpurposestatementhow yourproject
relatestotheorganization’spriorities.Includeexisting discussions of your project from the
information sources mentioned previously.
Looking at the Big Drawing the line: Where YOUR
Picture project starts and stops
Your project’s statement of scope should clearly describe where your project
starts and where it ends.
Your project strategy is the general approach you plan to take to perform the
work in your project scope.
Objectives are outcomes your project will produce. These outcomes may be
products or services you develop or the results of using these products and
services. The more clearly you define your project’s objectives, the more
likely you’ll achieve them.
Include the following elements to make your objectives clear and specific:
You need to be crystal clear when stating your project’s objectives. The more
specific your project objectives, the greater your chances are of achieving
them. Here are some tips for developing clear objectives:
Identify all objectives. Time and resources are always scarce, so if you don’t
specify an objective, you won’t (and shouldn’t) work to achieve it.
You need to identify all project objectives as early as possible so you can
plan for and devote the necessary time and resources to accomplish each
one. When you probe to identify all possible objectives, consider that projects
may have objectives in the following three categories:
Limitations: Restrictions that other people place on the results you have to
achieve, the time frames you have to meet, the resources you can use,
and the way you can approach your tasks.
This section helps you determine your project’s limitations and needs.
Marking the Working within limitations
BOUNDARIES
Project limitations may influence how you perform your project and may
even determine whether to proceed with your project. Consult with your
project’s drivers and supporters to identify limitations as early as possible so
you can design your plan to accommodate them.
Understanding the types of limitations
Project limitations typically fall into several categories. By recognizing these categories, you can focus your
investigations and thereby increase the chances that you’ll discover any limitations. Your project’s drivers
and supporters may have preset expectations or requirements regarding:
Results
Time frames
Resources
Activity performance
Be careful of a vague limitation; it provides poor guidance for what you can or can’t do, and it can demoralize
people who have to deal with it. Here are some examples:
Schedule limitation:
• Vague: “Finish this project as soon as possible.” This statement tells you nothing. With this limitation, your
audience may suddenly demand your project’s final results — with no advance warning.
• Specific: “Finish this project by close of business June 30.”
Resource limitation:
• Vague: “You can have an analyst part-time in May.” How heavily can you count on this analyst? From the
analyst’s point of view, how can she juggle all of her assignments in that period if she has
no idea how long each one will take?When people aren’t specific about a constraint, you can’t be sure
whether you can honor their request. The longer people wait to be specific, the less likely you can adhere to
the limitation and successfully complete your project.
• Specific: “You can have an analyst four hours per day for the first
two weeks in May.”
Marking the Looking for project limitations
BOUNDARIES
After you know what people expect, you can determine how (or whether) you can
meet those expectations. Try the following approaches:
List all project limitations in your SOW. If you have to explore ways to modify
your project plan in the future, the list can help define alternatives that you
can and cannot consider.
You can reflect limitations in your project in two ways.
Second, you can identify any project risks that result from a limitation. For
example, if you feel the target completion date is unusually aggressive, the
risk of missing that date may be significant. You’ll want to develop plans to
minimize and manage that risk throughout your project.
Marking the Dealing with needs
BOUNDARIES
For every issue you identify, make assumptions regarding unknowns associated with it.
Then use these assumptions as you plan your project. Consider the following examples:
Issue: How much money will you get to perform your project?
Approach: Assume you’ll get $50,000 for your project. Plan for your project to spend up
to, but no more than, $50,000. Develop detailed information to demonstrate why your
project budget must be $50,000 and share that information with key decision makers.
Issue: When will you get authorization to start work on your project?
Approach:Assume you’ll receive authorization to start work on August 1. Plan your
project work so that no activities start before August 1. Explain to key people why your
project must start on August 1 and work with them to facilitate your project’s approval by
that date.
Consider all project assumptions when you develop your project’s risk management plan.
THANK YOU