This is an excellent article and addresses the “elephant in the room” on many projects (especially the ambiguous IT projects). You hit the nail on the head with your statements:

“…the first step is to uncover the true goals (target accomplishments, not the solution) that each project owner, sponsor, customer and/or client has in mind. This step may be more challenging than it sounds. The documented goals may have been set prior to the project manager’s being assigned to the project. In this situation the goals may actually be solutions, not true goals.”

This is the essence of real communication - bi-directional discussion of what is to be accomplished (goals) before work gets done. It is said that “if you don’t know where you are going, a map won’t help” - or alternatively “any road will do”. This is what happens to too many projects - they start out with a great idea (truly) morph into a project which morphs into a project plan, lots of people get involved and soon the project is underway - but there’s been no real agreement of the minds that what is in the project plan traces back to the original goals or vision.

Thanks for posting - it ties well into #6 (Manage Expectations) in the post I did today about “Childproofing your metrics program” at http://musingsaboutsoftwaredevelopment.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/be-sure-to-childproof-your-metrics-program/

Carol