Defining the Details

Before committing significant resources, you must have agreement on what your project should produce, by when, and using what resources. While the brief should have identified the rationale and broad strategy behind a project, the next step is to define the scope of the project—precisely what will be handed over to the end users on completion.

Asking for input

In broad terms, defining the scope of your project is done by asking the right people the right questions in the right way, and recording your findings clearly. Consider the most important players in your project, identified in your stakeholder analysis: which of these have key roles in defining what the project must deliver? Time invested discussing the project brief with stakeholders, particularly the client and end users, is rarely wasted. The views of the sponsor are a good starting point—if your project required an initiation phase, you will have already obtained these from the mandate and the brief. Clients and end users should have significant input into the scope of your project, but also consider those with whom they interact, such as anyone who manages the end users or who will support them in areas relating to your project after implementation. It may also be helpful to speak to anyone who will be responsible for maintaining the product, capability, or facility that your project will deliver.

Gathering information

Focused and well-structured conversations not only deliver useful information from stakeholders, but can also build your credibility with the client. Generally speaking, it is best to have these discussions face-to-face, as this allows you to assess each person’s understanding of, and commitment to, the project. Although your primary purpose is to uncover the information you need to create a clear scope, in-depth questioning often exposes hitherto unexplored aspects of people’s work to scrutiny. This can sometimes be resented, so tread carefully, but be courageous enough to continue lines of questioning that are uncovering useful information.

Asking the right questions to define the scope

How?

• How will it be used?

• How long will it be in service for?

Where?

• Where will it be used? (Physically, and in what context?)

• Where is this in our list of priorities?

Who?

• Who are the end users?

• Who will support it?

• Who will manage it?

When?

• When will it be used?

Why?

• Why is this result required?

• Why doesn’t it exist already?

What?

• What is the problem to be fixed?

• What would be the impact of not fixing it?

• What exactly is the result required?

• What has been tried before?

The five whys

A simple but surprisingly powerful technique for establishing the link between a project and your organization’s key strategic objectives is to ask the client why they want what the project delivers. Insist that they answer this question beginning with the words “in order to.” Then take the answer they give and ask them why that is important; again, insist on “in order to.” Repeat this process for as many times as it takes to connect your project to your organization’s main business strategy. As a rule of thumb, if the sequence of questioning does not lead to one of your organization’s strategic goals within five steps, then the project may not be worth pursuing.

Understanding your client

Your first goal should be to establish how well your client understands the situation surrounding your project and the benefit they expect it to deliver. Inexperienced project managers sometimes make the mistake of trying to zero in too quickly on what the client sees as the essential and desirable features of the end product. In cases where the client does not know what they want, avoid asking direct questions about the scope, as this is likely to confuse and could lead to frustration, embarrassment, and conflict—not the ideal start to a relationship that should become a central axis of the project team.

Prioritizing features

In most projects, as you go through the definition process you will identify a number of features required of the end result. Some will be essential, while others are “nice to have.” In order to highlight where clashes exist, take each feature in turn and create designs based on that alone; then consider the results with the client and develop a definition that delivers the perfect mix of features to the end user.

Adding creativity

As part of the definition phase of your project, it is always worth taking a moment to think how it could be transformed from delivering a “fit for purpose” solution to being a project that catches the eye for creativity and elegance. This need not take much time; the main thing is to suspend judgment on ideas and have some fun. Then change your mindset and assess what additional perspectives your creative musings have uncovered. Try to identify more than one option—even when there is an obvious solution. Take time to consider at least three possible approaches (one of these might be “do nothing”). Your goal should be to find one way to make your project exciting and different for your end users or for your team.

Recording the scope

The investigations you undertake during the definition phase are to enable you to generate a detailed Project Information Document (PID). This is an expansion of the brief, incorporating all the additional information you have gathered from discussions with stakeholders. The PID is the document on which the sponsor will make a decision on whether to commit significant resources to the project. Once signed off, it becomes a binding agreement between the sponsor, the project manager, and the client, so its format and content are of paramount importance. The information in the PID needs to be easily accessible, so don’t include more than is necessary for the size and complexity of your project.

Understanding the scope of your project

• Do you have a clear idea of the objective of your project—what it is intended to achieve?

• Do you know why this is important?

• Do you know how and when it will be achieved?

• Have you determined who will be involved?

• Have you identified the deliverables for your project?

• Have you obtained enough information to allow your sponsor to make a decision on whether to proceed?