How to start a project so that you finish successfully – Part II: Identifyng the scope of your project
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.“Wishing consumes as much energy as planning.â€
Possibly the first and most informal step is to investigate the project. This investigation is usually part of the original idea for the project. You might have decided to go on a two week vacation when you heard about a colleague’s vacation or perhaps your family has not been on a vacation in a long time or perhaps you have recently been through a stressful event so you decide to go on a vacation. You start to investigate the possibilities immediately – you might ask friends to recommend somewhere. You might go on the internet and do a search for great vacation spots and costs. Similiarly, if your project is to plant a kitchen garden you might call an agricultural store and ask what sort of plants grow best in your climate and what might be the best soil and fertilizer to use and the costs.
Investigating your project is often informal but it is a crucial step. You will get an overall idea of what is required in terms of time, money, and personal effort. You will get an idea of the steps you will need to take to succeed. A farmer might let you know that you need to till the ground two weeks before you plant or a friend might tell you that you need to book that vacation spot two months in advance.
This investigative stage is critical because it allows you to determine if this project is right for you. Can you afford it? Do you have the time to devote to it? Is it more involved than you want to be right now? Being able to answer these questions up front in the genesis stage of your project allows you to fine tune it. This way, very early on you decide exactly what sort of project you can handle. It helps to prevent the situation where you invest time and possibly even money, only to realize that you are missing some vital resource.
Picking a project - An example
For example, let’s say you pick a vacation spot, book the hotel, purchase the tickets – and only then check with Human Resources to discover that you only have one week vacation time available when you have booked and paid for two weeks! This is a very simple and obvious example and few people will make this mistake but there are other less obvious errors that can be avoided by doing adequate research before you settle on your project scope.
While an investigation at this stage is not meant to be thorough, it must be comprehensive so that you garner enough information to determine if you have the time, money and other resources that this project is likely to require.
Narrowing down, ruling out and pinpointing the exact scope of your project
The next step is to identify the exact scope of your project. During your investigations you might have identified several possible vacation options and now is the time to pick one. This will often be informed by the reason behind pursuing this project. Why do you want to go on vacation? Is to rest and relax? That rules out Vegas. Do you want sand, sun and sea? That rules out Chicago. You might left with the Caribbean and Hawaii.
Now that you identified the scope, you can use the other information that you have gathered regarding costs and time to finalise your choices. How much money would you like to spend? Not as much as for the trip to Hawaii, so the Caribbean it is!
An important rule of thumb is that you should be able to clearly state your project scope in one sentence (or at most a few short sentences). This ensures that your project is focused and is not really several large projects which could be better achieved if they were separated. So your project plan might be “To go on a two-week vacation to the Caribbean with my family†or it might be “To plant a vegetable garden of tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce to supplement my groceries.†These projects will require a different scope from projects entitled: “To go on two-week vacation to the Caribbean with my football team.†Or “To plant a vegetable garden to supply my neighbourhood’s vegetable needs.†As you can see, clearly identifying your project scope is important.
In the next article we are going to discuss how to identify and break out the major milestones for your project so that you have a step by step project plan which itemises each step required for successful completion of the project.
“Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.†~ Donald Rumsfeld.
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- How to Start a Project so that you Finish Successfully – Part I
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- Achieving Your Goals – The Power of Consistency
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- Coping with Stress – Part I
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- Achieving Your Goals Part I – Goal Identification
- Achieving Your Goals Part II – Form a Plan
- Achieving Your Goals Part III – Make a Commitment
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- Achieving Your Goals Part VI – Change Your Thinking
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