Is Your Project Idea Ready for Launch?

Project ideas pop up all the time, but that doesn’t mean they are all worth pursuing. Companies want to reap enough benefits from the time and money they spend on projects. To make sure a candidate project is worthwhile, someone needs to complete some prerequisites before the project is launched.

Who gets these prerequisites in place when the project idea is so early in initiation? Management might ask a project manager to work on them. And that person might become the project manager if the project is approved -- but also might not. If the organization has a project management office, a PMO staff member could take on this work.

Here are the prerequisites that ensure a candidate project is worth pursuing:

An engaged sponsor. For a project to succeed, the sponsor needs to believe in the project’s business value. That’s because the sponsor:

• supplies time and funding to determine if the project is viable
• identifies the research the project requires
• decides the degree of risk the business is willing to accept
• figures out business priorities
• works through conflicts if key stakeholders disagree about the project’s focus

A clear goal. There should be a clear definition of the candidate’s project outcomes. The definition can be high-level. The sponsor and key stakeholders need to understand and agree on these outcomes. (Project initiation then focuses on picking the approach to create those outcomes.) The viability of the project also depends on resource availability, the ability to change business processes, and dependence on old systems that may be difficult to alter.

Available business analyst skills. Some projects focus on improving the way the organization does business. Others produce a new product or service. Business analysts and members of the business need to work together to evaluate these opportunities. It’s tempting to sketch out new processes or envision new products without thorough research and engaging business analysts. Skipping this effort adds risk and increases the chance of inaccurate assumptions that lead to project failure.

An understanding of priorities and budget. Organizations have only so much money to spend on projects. And they also prioritize projects based on how they support the organizations’ goals and objectives. Whoever evaluates the candidate must identify the candidate’s budget and priority. Otherwise, people might view the project as a waste of time or out of line with management’s objectives.?

An experienced project manager. The chance of project success increases when an experienced project manager takes the helm. The level of experience depends on factors like the project’s significance, complexity, and size. For instance, someone trained in project management but with little experience could handle a small, lower-priority project (and gain experience at the same time). A critical and complex project will need a senior project manager.

Who has performed these early steps in projects you’ve worked on? Are there other steps you’ve seen performed before launch? If so, share with us in the comments section.

For more about launching a project, check out my Project Management Foundations course.

Coming Up:

Office Hours - On August 9, Sam Yankelevitch and I will talk about overcoming obstacles for global and remote project teams. Working remotely is a reality today: it’s increasingly important to pay attention to the quality of our interactions with our distant colleagues. Language, culture, and distance influence the way we work together with stakeholders on our projects. We can either leave these factors to chance, or we can learn to leverage them to improve our project outcomes.

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This article belongs to the?Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series , which has more than 14,000 subscribers. If you like this article, you can?subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

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