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The Business Is the Bottleneck
May 16, 2012
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Problem Solving and Decision Making Processes
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Dealing with Conflict in Project Teams
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4 Easy Questions About How to Prioritize
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An Example of a Project Charter
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The Agile Project Manager - Fail Now as a Strategy
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So What Is Value for Money?
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Post-Agile?
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Navigating the Path to Integration Success
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When Agile Isn’t The Best Thing For The Client
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A Project Management Primer - Scope - Scope, Visions and Goals - Goals as a Filter for Requirements
February 29, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Scope Management, Requirements Management, Scope Management
A Project Management Primer - Scope - Scope, Visions and Goals - Goals as a Filter for Requirements (#8 in the Hut A Project Management Primer)
By Nick Jenkins
One of the primary purposes of goals is to act as a filter for subsequent requirements.
If a particular requirement cannot be traced back through higher-level goals to the overall project vision then it should be dropped since it will be outside the scope of the project.
For example, if the overall vision for the project was to “Deliver the best sales and marketing system on the market” an appropriate sub-goal might be “to deliver a sales-order processing system for use throughout all international offices”. An inappropriate sub-goal would be “to deliver an invoicing system” since the invoicing system would be part of the financial system and not the sales system.
This process of filtering should be used throughout the the project to assess requests for extra functionality and to consider them for inclusion within the project. The use of such filtering techniques gives you a method with which to avoid the perils of “scope creep”.
The link between low and high level goals can be fundamentally important. By linking them together you can track your progress through the objectives of your product. By delivering low level goals you build up to the delivery of high level goals and ultimately the delivery of the completed project. This is known as traceability.
Next in the Hut A Project Management Primer:
A Project Management Primer - Scope - Scope, Visions and Goals - A Decent Proposal
Previously in the Hut A Project Management Primer:
A Project Management Primer - Scope - Scope, Visions and Goals - The Vision as Inspiration
Nick Jenkins is an IT manager with 10 years experience in software development, project management and software testing. He’s worked in various fields of IT development in Australia, Britain and the USA and occasionally he learned something along the way. Now he lives on the banks of the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia, and he publishes the odd guide to help aspiring IT professionals. Nick’s website can be found at www.nickjenkins.net.
Related Articles
- A Project Management Primer - Scope - Requirements
- A Project Management Primer - Scope - Requirements - Stakeholders
- A Project Management Primer - Scope - Documenting Requirements - Introduction
- A Project Management Primer - Scope - Requirements Capture - Introduction
- A Project Management Primer - Scope - Requirements Capture - Questionnaires
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