It is hard to accomplish projects that are murky. When you are working on a project, clarifying what you are trying to accomplish helps you understand where you are headed and the steps that you need to take to get there.
There are four things you should clarify about your next project:
- Objective – What are you trying to do? What are you trying to accomplish?
- Why – Why is this worth doing? What problems are you solving?
- Impact – What will the impact and benefits be of accomplishing your goal? In the business world, this is sometimes called Key Results
- Deliverables – What key deliverables will you need to create in pursuit of your goal?
Many times you will be compelled after thinking of an objective to just get started. Going through the four areas above will give you a much deeper understanding of what you are trying to do and your motivations for doing so. They may seem simple and that is because they are. However, you may skip doing even these simple steps. The clarity you get from going through these simple steps can save time and even be the difference between success and failure.
Additionally, the exercise above will help you start to think about three key project management constraints:
- Scope – What is required and must be completed in pursuit of your objective? What are the nice to haves that you want but don’t strictly need? What should you not do and actively avoid doing?
- Resources – Who will work on this project, and how much time will they spend each week? It may be just you, or others may be involved. What other non-monetary resources (e.g. financial) resources will you need? What is the total investment
- Schedule – When should the project be completed by? What todos will need to be completed along the way, and in what order?
Note that you can define two, but not all three, of the constraints above. The third will be decided based on the two that you define. For instance, if you define the scope of project and resources you have, then that will give you a sense for how quickly you can accomplish the project. Do accomplish the project faster, you will need to reduce scope or add resources.
In general, projects in life may drag on for a long time. That is because you didn’t set a due date. Next time try setting a due date and either reducing scope or adding resources to hit your deadline.
The final thing to think through when running a project are the project details. This includes:
- Project steps, including milestones, owners and deadlines
- Risks, including steps to mitigate
- Any key assumptions, constraints or context
By clarifying your project, defining the constraints, and thinking through project details you will greatly increase your chance of success and help get others on board with your project.
