The Real Mission of Every Project

I said earlier that the mission is always to achieve the vision. However, I should add that the vision you are trying to achieve is the one the customer holds. Another way to say this is that you are trying to satisfy the customer’s needs. That is the primary objective. Your motive may be to make a profit in the process, but the mission is always to meet the needs of the customer. That means, of course, that you must know what those needs are, and sometimes this isn’t easy, because even the customer isn’t clear about them. So you have to translate or interpret as best you can. Your best safeguard is to keep the customer involved in the project from concept to completion so that there is a constant check on whether what you are doing will achieve the desired result.

The mission of the project can be written by answering two questions:

In the previous edition of this book, I suggested that you also state how you will go about meeting those customer needs, but I have since decided that this should not be part of the mission statement itself. The mission statement defines “what” you are doing; “how” you are going to do it is project strategy and should be dealt with separately.

Some Examples

When AMACOM called me to update this book, it defined the problem this way: the second edition was considered a bit dated, and it did not contain much information on Project Management Institute and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^®) (which was presented in chapter 1 of this edition). I also felt, on the basis of the experience I have had since the first edition was released, that some sections of the book could be clarified for the reader.

Problem Statement

If I were to write a problem statement for this project, then, it would say: The second edition of Fundamentals of Project Management lacks information on the PMBOK and needs to be updated.

Vision

The vision for the book remains about the same as for the first edition. The original series was designed to provide readers with a quick, easy read on the subject covered. The books are kept to under 200 pages and are written in down-to-earth language. All are published in paperback. I also add to this my own component of the vision: I like my books to be well illustrated, to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material.

Mission Statement

The mission for this project is to develop a new edition of the book that includes expanded PMBOK material and that adds some new material. The target audience (who it is for) is senior managers and other readers who need a quick overview of project management without going into a great deal of depth. That’s it—this is an example of developing the problem, vision, and mission for this book project.

Boeing’s 777 Airplane

I said above that we are always trying to meet customer requirements, so we should listen to them. This can be harder to do than it seems. In his book 21st Century Jet, which chronicles development of Boeing’s 777 airplane, Karl Sabbagh (1996) explains that Boeing’s customers started asking for a plane smaller than the 747. Boeing had just finished developing the 767, so they suggested that customers buy it. “It’s too small,” said the airlines.

Other customers asked for a plane a little larger than the 767. Boeing suggested the 747. “It’s too big,” said the airlines. It took Boeing nearly two years to realize that the airlines wanted a plane intermediate in size between the 747 and the 767. When they finally got the message, they developed the 777, which is the subject of Sabbagh’s book.

A problem statement for this project might have said:

We have no plane intermediate in size between the 747 and the 767 that can carry passengers over a transpacific route.

(Please note that this is my statement. Boeing did not provide it to me, and I don’t know if it would fully agree with it.)