Project "Goal"

‘Project Startup’ is the key to success of any project. Any project management methodology defines this as the first step of a project plan. However, most of the time this phase is treated as a ritualistic, ceremonial kick-off meeting or compliance to delivery process only. This becomes more of an event than a serious phase in the project. Most of the projects do suffer as the importance of this startup phase is often not clearly understood by customers as well as service providers.

The service provider appoints a Project Manager and the customer, too, appoints a SPOC (single point of contact) after the contract gets signed. They start the project with a great deal of zeal and all good intentions. As the first task, they schedule a meeting with their respective initial team members to formalize project startup.

It is assumed that the Project Manager and the SPOC have gone through the Contract and other related documents have been exchanged prior to the contract signing process e.g. any approach note, proposal etc. They are supposed to have an overview of the context and requirements of the project. The Project Manager’s focus lies in ‘what’ to deliver i.e. scope of the project, ‘when’ to deliver i.e. schedule, ‘how’ to deliver i.e. methodology, team etc. Sometimes ‘where’ to deliver is also discussed i.e. at customer location or service provider’s location or both. The customer’s SPOC also focuses on team size, team strength, project schedule and the project review mechanism. In addition, the teams do discuss on high level risks associated with the project arising from their experience.

But almost in more than 90% cases, both the teams lose focus on ‘why’ part of the project i.e. what is the “Goal” of the said project. And that is the most crucial point of the project startup phase.

Ideally, both the teams should repeatedly ask questions in a way to articulate, debate and internalize the project goals and the expectations of key stakeholders. The questions can be:

 

- Why the business is funding this project?

- If this project is not done, what is the harm to the business?

- If this project goes through, what benefits (both qualitative and quantitative) are envisaged by the business?

- How can you measure the success?

- Why is the schedule so important?

- If this project does not complete within the expected time period, what is the loss to the business?

- Can the goal be set into objectives that can be achieved within small time period, say 30-60days?

- How can you measure the success of each milestone to determine whether the project is going to achieve the goal or not?

Staying focused on the project goal is the key for both the teams to align for achieving success. And, project startup is the phase when this is to be achieved in a strategic manner. This enables the teams to understand the ‘big picture’ context of the aspirations of the stakeholders.

Hence, project startup is not an event rather the most important stage of the project. Even if it takes more time, be it so. Unless the project goal is clearly understood and internalized, the project activities should not start at all.