Defining the Business Objectives and Benefits
Question 2: Have you defined and understood the business objectives & benefits?
Good Practice: A Project Definition document should be prepared and formally signed off by the Steering Committee. This document defines the goals, objectives, benefits, deliverables, exclusions, assumptions, business sponsors, responsibilities, estimated costs, timescale and serves the following purposes:
- Clearly defines the objectives and scope of the project.
- Provides management and team members with a common view and clear understanding.
- Provides a good starting point for the subsequent definition of more detailed documents, for example Project Plan, Project Budget, and Functional Requirements Specification.
Common Mistakes
- A common mistake is to start focusing on solutions, how to achieve something, before gaining a clear understanding of the business objectives that you want to achieve and identifying the business sponsors needed to help achieve these objectives.
- Not returning to the Benefits Statement during the course of the project to make sure they are still valid and achievable.
Notes: "The number of projects that set out confidently with little or no idea of what they are supposed to achieve is truly astounding."
"Some projects start out with a clear idea, but loose track of it by the time they're 20% into the project."
"Many proud, objective-orientated managers have a list of goals that are, on closer inspection, technology driven, and not business driven. They are headed for a 'successful' project whose results will never be used."
"Keep in mind that the aim of a project is 'results delivery' not, as is often the case, 'construction activity'. This means thinking about the products that the project is in business to deliver."