Start by Imagining Project Success

"What's The Point?"

I worked on a project where "what's the point" was actually the (cynical) tag line!  Team members, sponsors, and stakeholders all ran around asking the question "What's The Point?"  


The Practical Project Manager knows the impact of external forces on a project's timeline and chance for successful completion.  This goes beyond project communication: we must delve into our surroundings and understand the environment we are working in.  


A successful project delivers against stated objectives and provides clear value to the enterprise.

External Forces
External forces are also moving and changing and are as important as internal project activity

• What else is your team working on?
• What is the resource allocation process to ensure your resources are adequately available?
• What does the overall portfolio look like and how does your project fit into the priority scheme?
• How are you able to communicate project status externally?
• Have you read the company's Annual Plan and Quarterly Reports?  
• What is happening with the company overall, with the industry it operates in and is impacted by, with the economy?
• What are the innovation and technology trends?  How is your project enabled or constrained by these trends?

Create an EXTERNAL FORCES CHECKLIST.  From this checklist, ask questions!  You will discover and be able to manage RISKS, DEPENDENCIES, and INTEGRATION POINTS that impact your project.


Project Duration
The longer the project duration, the more likely you will need to monitor activities outside your scope and make adjustments accordingly


A project with a short duration, let's say 3-6 months is less likely to be impacted by or impact external activities.  If a project is planned to last longer than 6 months, several complexities enter the picture:

• Does your project need to be broken down into smaller deliverables?  Is this really a program (a collection of projects)?
• What have you assumed to be constant or changing over the life of the project?  
• What if these assumptions are no longer valid over time?
• Look at the timeline of competing, dependent, and complementary projects.  How do they impact your timeline?
• Are there external mandates (such as legal requirements) that force your project to a fixed timeline?
• Will your project need to provide intermediate results given the changing landscape?
• Have your requirements changed over time due to new innovation, technology, or changing business needs?

Before building a complex GANTT chart, create a high level DEPENDENCY CHART which shows the timeline of external forces relative to your project.  These forces may dictate a specific timeline.


Finishing a project
A project is over when it is finished, canceled, you run out of time or money, or it has failed.  A project is rarely over when it is ‘finished’, so always work on the core, critical items first


Most will say a project is over when it is finished to the project sponsor's satisfaction.  The reality is a project is over when one of the following is achieved:


Finished - in the zeal to finish a project, we often strive to complete every requirement approved by the project sponsor.  However, a successful project is measured on how well it meets the stated objective.  When gathering requirements, make sure to rate each requirement for it importance and urgency in achieving the stated objective.  Create a measurable way to determine what "finished" looks like.


Canceled - projects are often canceled due to funding cutbacks, lack of resources, or lack of project sponsorship. If your project is canceled, make sure to leave clear project close-out documentation since canceled projects may be restarted at a later date.


Out of Time - if a timeline mandate is in place, for example a tax law changes at the end of the year, the project is finished at that moment.  Again, make sure the most important and urgent requirements are completed first.


Out of Money - most often, projects are finished when they are out of money.  Typically a project is awarded a certain budget based on a mandate, return on investment, or the financial tolerance for that business unit.  When the money runs out, the project is finished.  I cannot stress the importances of ensuring important and urgent requirements are completed first.


Failed - Sadly, many projects do not meet the stated objectives and ultimately fail.  Some studies suggest 60-75% of technology projects fail!  Even projects that meet stated objectives fail because the objectives do not create value to the enterprise.  I believe most projects fail because they fall short of expectations SET BY EXTERNAL FORCES, that is, the stated objectives of a project do no create clear value to the enterprise.


In Summary
The Practical Project Manager:

• monitors EXTERNAL FORCES to identify RISKS, DEPENDENCIES, and INTEGRATION POINTS
• builds a high level DEPENDENCY CHART which shows the timeline of external forces
• ensures important and urgent requirements are completed first
• delivers Project Success by delivering an improved product or service that has clear value to the enterprise.

Refer to: #5 Don’t Work in a Vacuum
Always refer to your company's methodology or the Project Management Institute for specific how-to.