Initiating

1. Initiating

2. Objective: define: • Project objectives • Scope • Goals • Requirements Increasing level of details Often overlapping Each level built on top of the previous one

3. Project objectives: binds the project to goals of the organizations Goals: define the finish-line measurement for the project Scope: define the boundaries of the project and determine the project deliverables Requirement: define the characteristics of the deliverables Project Objectives and Goals Requirements Scope Goals Project Objectives

4. Project Objectives • To ensure the project lines up with the business objectives • Sometimes difficult to understand how a project fits in the strategic goals of the organization (e.g. some strategic goals may split and span across multiple projects). • It allows to determine “win” conditions for certain stakeholders

5. Project Objectives (II) • Business Justification • Combination of both tangible and untangible benefits • Tangible benefits: cost and revenues; provide a quantitative way of measuring why a company should start a project. • Untangible benefits: unmeasurable assets that are results of the project. • Team Goals • Expectations of each team’s member for the project • Help understand how to deal with the team • Remark I. May be in reciprocal contrast • Remark II. May be in contrast with the project objectives

6. Project Goals • Ends or final purposes of the project, that is, objective measures that determine the success of the project • Maybe determined by the project sponsor or by the team • Do not exceed and set to many goals (Tomczyk suggests no more than 6)

7. Project Goals (II) Make the goals SMART: • Specific • Clear and concise • Measurable • Easy to obtain measure to understand whether the goal has been reached. Maybe a date or a number, or a formula (but keep it simple!) • Agreed-to • Goals must be specific enough that the team can agree on being able to reach them • Realistic • Goals must be realistic. Unrealistic goals set unrealistic expectation and make the team apathetic. • Time-bound • Must have a begin and an end. If no end can be set, are you sure we are not talking about operational work?

8. Measuring Goals • The time, cost, and quality triangle (quality being the trickiest to measure) But also: • Scope and client satisfaction … to try and avoid: • Implementing the wrong function right • Misunderstanding the customers’ priorities.

9. Goals (III) • Identify, within the goals, the critical success factors (those goals that are necessary to have the project succeed) • Make sure to include the critical success factors in the risk management plan

10. Assumptions • Always try and make clear the assumptions on which the achievability of your goals is based • Often hidden as definitions or understanding disagreements • Try and identify assumptions in the following areas: • Priorities • Regulations • Vendors • Resources • Team stability • Team scope • Other pressures

11. Delineating Scope • Scope describes the project by delineating the limits of the activities and of the deliverables (baseline deliverable list) • Gold plating - introducing useless functions to make stakeholder happier • Scope creeps - slowly changing the scope of the project trough (apparently) small change requests… while we are at it, we may add this new function! • (sometimes it helps to write down what is not in the scope of a project)

12. Requirements • You probably know more than I do on the matter… • Can be collected with brainstorming sessions (help discover “hidden” requirements) • Never enough time spent on collecting them • They help avoiding the scope-creep syndrome. • … but it is almost inevitable requirements will be added and changed during the project • See e.g. RUP • Project awakening: getting more involved in the project • Progression towards the end clarifies ideas

13. Scope Management Plan • Write down how you intend to keep the project on scope… • … encourage formal change requests • … define an approval process • … define review points