Dy oa PROJECT tone Well-Defined Objectives How can I tell whether objectives will help me successfully attention-grabbing TV commercial that'l increase market complete project? share” could transate into a guy with aloud voice (and ‘Vague objectives are the mainsource of difficulty in obtaining _—_—Plad jacket to match) selling your product at half the approval fora project plan. You need solid objectives to builda price of your competitors. I'l grab attention and increase project plan and to complete a project to everyone's satistac- ‘ake share..and decimate your profits. tion, Here ate the characteristics of well-defined objectives: + Measurable or verifiable. Make objectives as measurable + Realistic. Whats the point of setting an objective that OF PrOvable aS you can. For example, how do you ro one can reach? Set attainable goals. Challenging ™easure whether a training lass is effective? When objectives ae OK, but people stop trying when goalsare YoU use subjective goals, be sure to define how you'll too far out of reach, know whether you've succeeded. For example, you may decide that an average evaluation score of 8 means the lass will improve productivity when the trainees get back tothe office. + Gear, If you've ever worked with someone who does exactly what you say, you know how hard it sto clearly specify what you want. For example, saying you want “an What Strategy Will You Use to Solve the Problem? Every project solves a problem, but most problems have more than one right answer. You want the solution that does the best job of achieving the project's goal and objectives. You might work on identifying objectives and studying strategies at the same time, When the objectives gel, the stakeholders can evaluate the strategies and make their choice. Remember those solutions people tried to pass off as the project's problem? Now that you know the actual problem the project is supposed to solve, you can ask stakeholders about potential solutions or review the solutions they gave you earlier, Brainstorming with stakeholders is a good way to start evaluating strategies. The back and forth between different stakeholders can also help you clarify must-have and nice-to-have objectives. These discussions can also give you insight into which strategies are likely to work for your stakeholders (or not). A winning strategy satisfies the must-have objectives and most of the nice-to-have objectives (page 32). A strategy also has to pass afew additional tests to be a success, Here are a few questions to ask while evaluating project strategies: + Isit feasible? if the strategy won't work, the project won't either. If you're con- sidering an untested or rarely used solution, run a feasibility study that looks at whether the solution will work before you commit the entire project to it CHAPTER 2: PLANNING A PROJECT 31 www.it-ebooks.infoDEFINING THE Lite soak + Are the risks acceptable? Part of a project plan is risk analysis (page 38) Project risk management analyzes the hazards and windfalls in the selected strategy and the plan that goes with it to minimize the chance of failure. Before you choose a strategy, you need to perform a mini risk analysis to eliminate the “We'd be crazy to do that” solutions. + Does the strategy fit the culture? Cultural factors are touchy-feely, but they're also almost impossible to overcome. For example, if your company emphasizes its connection with its customers, an outsourcing solution isn’t likely to work. Strategies that run counter to the corporate culture aren’t completely out of the question, but if you pick one, you'll need to spend extra time getting—and keeping—commitment from the stakeholders, Choosing a project strategy isn’t an exact process because you have to estimate the potential results for each option. Besides, some project objectives are simply hard to quantify. A decision matrix pits project objectives against project strate- gies, As you can see in Figure 2-2, you can evaluate strategies as quantitatively or qualitatively as you like, Ba HEED ore ser pacevovoit omnis pata roo vw Benes. «F) one way to nt pasing a . 2 3 5 E | Objectives [Raise 51,000,000 Lion frmating trom ns [Retain at least 85% of VIP fundraisers ww misingmanuals comes, Decrease cat of fundraising by 10% Sheott_| sheet2 | sheets ; FIGURE 2-2 cr falling grades in Excel is & || maybe | with conditional formatting, hich applies citerent formating depending on hich condition a cell mets, Fer example, yourate strategies wit values ite Yes, No, and Maybe, you can shade cells based on tir values Downioad the Exel workbook, h2_DecsionMatrc.xs, compiete with sample cond- prea ae expat ‘undralirg channels Strategies Produce TV Develop new her cf donors by 15% book's Missing CO page at BEE conser sacng the must-have poet objectives athe top ofthe decsion matic ad nice-o-have objectives below that. Ifa strategy doesn’t satisy the must-nave objectives then don't bother rating the other objectives.Or, you can begin evaluating strategies by their must-have performance, Ihen, when you've shortened the lst, vou an evaluate the full ist of objectives. 32 MICROSOFT PROJECT 2013: THE MISSING MANUAL www.it-ebooks.infoIdentifying Project Results Deliverables are the tangible results a project produces—like the money raised for a charity, a bridge you can drive across, or the incriminating pictures you were hired to shoot, Projects churn out a major deliverable at the end, but smaller deliverables surface throughout the projects’ lfetimes—like blueprints for a bridge, the fabricated steel girders that support it, and even the project plan itself Each major deliverable represents a component of the project, which, in turn, ap- pears as a bullet point in the project scope statement (page 34). If you find an item in the project scope statement that doesn't correspond to a deliverable, you've either missed a deliverable or you need to move that item to the “Out of scope” column. Because deliverables don't appear out of thin air, you need tasks to produce them, You can use the list of deliverables you develop to double-check that you've identi- fied all the tasks in the work breakdown structure (page 127). Although documen- tation is a deliverable that people tend to overlook, government projects (to name one example) are known for significant documentation deliverables that are also contractual requirements. If documentation is a deliverable, be sure to include tasks to produce it. DETER ie ou oo ts scone ads deliverables provide a ave ew of wha the poets supposed to accomplish These components ofthe project plan often come packaged as a document called the statement of work, a project synopsis that’s perfect for including in legal contracts. Interim deliverables that appear during the course of a project don't always go to the project’s customer. For instance, you need contracts with all the vendors for your event, but the director or the charity doesn’t need to see them. Interim deliverables are great for keeping everyone on course. Team members use them as short-term targets to shoot for. And you can use deliverables as milestones in your project schedule to gauge the project's progress. Gauging Success There's nothing quite as disheartening as reaching the end of a project only to find out that some people think you aren't done yet. The best way to prevent such dis appointment is to clearly define what constitutes success during project planning As you document objectives and deliverables, be sure to specify how you're going to determine whether they've been achieved. For the fundraiser, you might include the accounting report that shows the net income and the percentage of total income, Other projects might require more detailed (and subjective) criteria, such as software acceptance based on successfully completing a set of test transactions, eliminating all critical and serious bugs, or completing test transactions in a timed test. Being specific about success criteria is crucial and requires persistence. You have to make sure that you clearly define every aspect of your criteria. For instance, if acceptance depends on eliminating critical bugs, you also need to carefully define what you mean by “critical bug.” Dy oa PROJECT CHAPTER 2: PLANNING A PROJECT www.it-ebooks.info 33