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Requirements Defined = Internal Focus

December 10, 2007 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Requirements Management

Requirements Defined = Internal Focus
By Craig Brown

Projects with clear and defined outcomes are what you think about when you think about a traditional project.

The PMI’s PMBOK describes initiating, then planning a project. During the initiating phase the project objectives are pretty much defined. During the planning phase they become more refined, but basically you are expected to know what you are doing. I am not an expert but I understand PRINCE2 takes a more iterative approach to defining the outcomes, but essentially also expects your project team to have a clear goal.

If you are a project team and someone comes to you with a brief you’ll still need to test it out and make sure you and the client are thinking about the same thing, but basically you are now ready to go.

In these projects you are typically working to a brief, a requirements specification or a design. You take the plan and break down the work then hand it to the experts and off they go. Testing and verification are against the written document and people have a good ability to validate their own work as they go. Testers don’t need to speak to the client - they work off a plan or specification doc.

The whole focus of the project manager in this type of project is on optimising the performance of the team. If team members don’t get what the project is about it’s the PM’s job to help them understand. If people are having problems getting their work done to time/cost/quality the PM takes action.

Some attributes of this type of project are described below.

2 Modes Internal

Important things in this mix are work breakdown structures, a rigorous planning phase, a big requirements specification, thought out scheduling, earned value management, managing the gantt chart (or burndown chart) and of course, making sure you have a good team.

When you build whatever it is you are building you know when you are done. You can then hand over the end product, get paid and move on to the next job.

But what if you or your client aren’t so sure about what you want?

Craig Brown has worked as a project manager and business analyst mainly in the Australian ITC and the banking industries. He has also worked in the law, education and welfare industries, including starting a law firm. Craig now has a Master’s degree in project management from RMIT university, and is currently working with a Melbourne based IT consulting firm called OptimiseIT. Craig’s personal blog can be found at http://betterprojects.blogspot.com.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 and is filed under Requirements Management. 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.

1 person has left a comment

[...] also Requirements Defined = Internal Focus by Craig [...]

PM Hut » Ill-Defined Intangibles = External focus wrote on February 10, 2008 - 10:44 am | Visit Link

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