The Importance of Getting Ready

The most common problem in projects is bad requirements, yet requirements is just one of many tasks that can limit your success when getting ready to start a project. Even if your requirements are rock solid there are other aspects of getting ready which commonly cause project grief.

The biggest challenge after requirements is negotiating the project schedule. In many businesses the schedule can be more important than almost all other project requirements. Yet, schedule is a negotiation – a negotiation made complex because there is not really a single projected end date for a project – just a probability of completion on any chosen date in the range of completion estimates. Getting ready means that the target or committed date is conscientiously set.

High up in the ready-list is the negotiation of the attractiveness of the project. Short schedules, low investments, cool features, captivated customers, financial rewards, time to market, the “closing market window”, “already sold”, and many other enticements set the tone of selling the project to business management. Getting ready means having decided which are real, which are fluff, which will allow a successful project, and which will increase risk.

And last on this list of challenges is the exploratory project masquerading as a committed deliverable. Sometimes you have to run an exploratory project to figure out what the project really is, explore and minimize the risks for the real project, and figure out how long and how much effort is required. Sadly, most businesses jump right into the ‘real’ project oblivious to the risks for the schedule, content, customer deals, and investments. Too many of those fail. Too many of those take the project leader with them.

Getting ready is an art that needs to navigate the politics of the organization and the reality of the project. Are you really ready to start your project?

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