Planning The Work
It’s next to impossible to measure performance or, effectiveness on a project if you do not have a “measuring stick”. Quite simply, the measuring stick on any project is your client and their expectations! Therefore, capturing client expectations becomes the most critical task at the beginning of any project. After the project is underway, being able to measure against those expectations means you can guide the project and help make effective decisions. The more you know about your client’s expectations the easier it becomes.
The place where I like to capture client expectations is in the Project Scope and Charter. This document is closely linked to the workplan. The workplan is where expectations are turned into tasks, deliverables and milestones that will help meet those expectations. There isn’t a sequential order implied between defining the work and building the schedule and budget. Therefore, you can work on the Project Scope and Charter and the workplan simultaneously.
Some of the sections of the Project Scope and Charter, such as the estimates for effort and duration, cannot be completed without starting to lay out the overall project schedule. At the same time, you cannot complete the schedule without gaining agreement on the Project Scope and Charter. For instance, you cannot build the schedule and budget without gaining a high-level agreement on deliverables and scope. Defining the expectations for the project also involves describing an overall project approach, which is helpful to know before the schedule is completed.
You will find that as you gather information about scope and deliverables, you can start laying out a high-level schedule. As you gather more information about the work, you can fill in more details on the schedule. When the deliverables, scope, assumptions and approach are complete, you should have enough information to complete a high-level schedule. You can then use the high-level schedule to estimate the necessary budget, effort and duration - which in turn are used to complete the Project Scope and Charter.
At the end of the Plan the Work phase you should have an agreement with your sponsor on the work that will be completed and the cost (time) and duration that are needed to complete the work. These three items then form a concept called the “triple constraint”. The key aspect of the triple constraint is that if one of the three items change, at least one, if not both, of the other items need to change as well.
If the scope of work increases, the cost and / or deadline must increase as well. If you have more work to do, it will take more cost (effort) and perhaps a longer duration. Likewise if you reduce the scope of work, the cost (effort) and / or the duration should decrease as well. If you are asked to accelerate the project and complete it earlier than scheduled, it would also be logical to ask for less work. However, if you are asked to deliver the same work with less duration, the third leg of the triple constraint must increase to maintain the balance. You will need to increase costs (effort), perhaps by working overtime hours or perhaps by bringing in more resources to complete the same amount of work earlier.
These conversations are easier to have with your client if you’ve correctly captured their expectations. And capturing these expectations up front becomes critical to the success of planning any project. Without understanding or, properly capturing these expectations you’re not able to provide project management to your client. And we all know how that story ends!
