« When a Project Has No End
The Key Causes of Failure in Leadership »

Anatomy of a Web Project #1: Concept Phase

May 6, 2010 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Lifecycle Phases

Anatomy of a Web Project #1: Concept Phase (#1 in the series Anatomy of a Web Project)
By Peter Cameron-Burnett

This is the initial idea, which normally starts with someone saying “wouldn’t it be great if”. The idea for a project is usually fairly hazy, unless it’s simple, and arises from a need for things to be different than they are. The job in this stage is to define what that idea actually is, i.e. what does “done” looks like for this project? We should then do a quick “could we/should we” sanity check on it. A lot of projects miss this step, which is why they fail.

Concept Phase Checklist

Our job in this phase: To establish the brief (i.e. what “done” looks like), and decide whether it is achievable/advisable given what we have to work with.

  • Have we checked if we’ve done this before, and if so, what the lessons are?
  • Have we identified and evaluated the risks?
  • Is the customer – i.e. the person asking for it – the person who originated the idea? If not, are we positive they have grasped the mental picture the original person had?
  • Do we know why they want it?
  • Have we fed back what we believe “done” looks like and got agreement to it?
  • Is there anyone else who this could benefit or otherwise affect? Do they need to be part of this process? (And do they have budget we can add to the pot …)
  • Is there anyone who is going to oppose this? Can we do anything to bring them onside?
  • Do we have a high level champion who can support the project by pushing things through and getting extra funding – and also protecting our resources when other projects come along? If not, where can we find one?
  • Is the customer the person who will actually be implementing or using what is planned? If not, do we need input from the guys at ground level as to what will work?
  • Have we identified all of the major components that will comprise the finished article? Is there anything that suggests that the customer hasn’t thought this through and there are other elements that will need to happen?
  • Is anyone else doing anything – i.e. another project or process – that this will affect?
  • Is this project important to us as well as the customer?
  • Is there anything that is inferred? I.e. the customer assumes that if we do X, it follows that we must do Y?
  • Have we established the limitations we need to work within? What is the project’s envelope?
  • Are we sure that the limitations are correct? Are we getting it from the people who work with them?
  • Do we have an accurate picture of the resources and budget available?

Peter Cameron-Burnett is a director at the Montgomery Aston Consulting group. His speciality is helping companies do business online. He can be reached by email at peter.cameronburnett@montgomeryaston.com, by Skype at montgomeryaston, or by phone at 07875 505949. Contact him with your questions and he will answer them in his blog, The Online Business Doctor.

Share this article:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • blogmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • TwitThis
  • Yahoo! Buzz

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 and is filed under Project Lifecycle Phases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No comments yet.

feel free to leave a comment

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

All fields marked with " * " are required.

Project Management Categories