Initiating a project

When building a project we need to look at:

Success and benefits: Understanding what success means to different stakeholders
Objectives and requirements: Comprehensive and measurable requirements are critical to project success
Options and solutions: Exploring multiple options until a preferred solution is identified
Scope definition: The translation of requirements into outputs for the chosen solution
Quality planning: Ensuring outputs are delived in accordance with the requirements

Scope Management

In scope management, there is a range of different activies you can partake in:

requirements management: gathers and assesses stakeholder wants and needs. The various requirements are assesed to ensure they are practical, achievable and define what is needed than how they will be achieved.

A well specified requirement is:
- uniquely identified: only addresses one core requirement
- current: it is up to date and relevant to business needs
- consistent: it does not contradict any other requirement
- understandable: concisely stated and not open to interpretation
- verifiable: compliance can be verified through inspection, demonstration, test or analysis
- traceable: the requirement can be traced back
- prioritised: its relative importance is understood
A simple process for requirements management:
1. gather requirements from stakeholders
2. analyse requirements, look for gaps and conflicts
3. justify the requirements to distinguish want from need
4. baseline the needs before commencing development
solutions development: takes the stakeholders’ requirements and investigates how they may be achieved to provide the best value. A simple process produces a clear set of baselined stakeholder requirements.

The emerging solution is subject to periodic review.