In many projects that I was involved in, it was and still is, pretty common that senior management requests a project based on the requirements they see. Since most senior management leaders (e.g. Vice President and above) have more information and a much wider view than anyone else in a company this is a valid approach. The challenge with this approach is that nobody wants to challenge a senior leader with too many questions. To ensure that the project can be successful it is critical to ask clarifying questions at the beginning. Don't get into the Analysis/Paralysis stage where you try to clarify everything. You need to clarify the "big picture". The project charter is an ideal instrument to do just that.
Before you start your project management activities use at least the following questions. Please note that this applies to traditional as well as agile project management methodologies
- Provide a short summary of the intent and motivation for the project. What is the final deliverable or goal? Why does the organization want to do this project?
- Establish measurable criteria to judge whether the project has met it business objectives
- Who are your stakeholders? Make sure that you understand what constituts success for your different stakeholders ( --> you can add major benefits, win conditions and constraints to every stakeholder if you like)
- What are your assumptions, dependencies and constraints regarding this project?
- Do you know which milestones the stakeholders especially the project sponsor has in mind?
- What are the known risks for the project?
- Which resources will be available for the project? Will the project manager be able to select some team members etc.?
- Which approvals are needed for this project to be successful?
The objective is to keep this document as short as possible and to get approval from the key stakeholders that this document correctly reflects their expectations. Please note that this shouldn't take a huge amount of time. Since most senior leaders won't read the documents you send via email thoroughly I recommend scheduling a short meeting to confirm that the document is correct before you start with the next project steps. This is pretty basic but helpful and you should do this for EVERY project.
