The Goal Getters

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.

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Can it be done; absolutely!  However, to meet this timeline you won’t get ‘everything under the sun’ and you’ll have to strong change control to stick with the plan.  I know what you’re thinking, “sounds too good to be true”.  Right?  Maybe not.  Think about building a house in 90 days.  Can it be done?  Yep, I’ve done it (minus the foundation).

But it required a pretty specific plan and we had to stick to the plan even though we knew we wouldn’t be looking at the end product in 90 days.  In it’s basic form we had i. a plan with critical milestones and ii. what I’m calling “building blocks” (i.e., framing, plumbing, electrical etc).  We had to make sure that each of the building blocks was fully defined ahead of time (i.e., framed walls went here and not over there) and mapped out on the timeline to fit it in the 90 day window.  Since I was the one managing the workplan I actually ended up switching the tasks around and going against the traditional order followed in construction.

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