{"id":9953,"date":"2014-01-08T16:09:07","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T16:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.journeytothecloud.com\/?p=3514"},"modified":"2014-01-08T16:09:07","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T16:09:07","slug":"defining-requirements-leads-to-successful-it-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/defining-requirements-leads-to-successful-it-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Requirements Leads to Successful IT Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Erin Marandola, Contract Administrator, PMP<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Simply\u00a0stated, a successful IT project is one that is completed on time and within budget.\u00a0 But, how do we get there, and why are there so many project failures?\u00a0 From a service provider\u2019s perspective, a successful project avoids scope creep (the project getting out of control), which adds cost, time and risk.\u00a0 The successful project should also avoid gold plating (the addition of unintended added features to the final product of the project).\u00a0 These pitfalls can be easily avoided.\u00a0 In this blog, I\u2019ll review how properly defining requirements can contribute to a thorough, well-thought out Statement of Work, and lead to a successful project.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

If there is a mutually agreed upon<\/span><\/i> Statement of Work outlining the project scope, deliverables, acceptance criteria, and assumptions, each party should have a clear, equal understanding of the project, right?\u00a0 Not exactly. \u00a0A key factor in project failure is neglecting to exhaustively define and document project requirements within the Statement of Work.\u00a0 When we withhold information, assumptions are made.\u00a0 Since we don\u2019t all think the same way, this can lead to the service provider believing certain terms and conditions are true, while the customer believes otherwise.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Looking back at my career, a few project failures come to mind.\u00a0 In one case, there was a different perception of what was considered in and out of scope between various parties.\u00a0 For example, the Statement of Work said \u201cEight (8) hours of post-implementation support.\u201d\u00a0 The customer assumed the provider would provide support to end users<\/i><\/b>, but the provider assumed the support would be at the system level<\/i><\/b> and provided only to system administrators<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 In another case, assumptions were made while scoping the project and writing the Statement of Work, but they were never documented and validated by all parties.\u00a0 This resulted in an engineer arriving onsite for an Exchange upgrade, only to realize the project could not be completed based on conflicts in the client\u2019s environment.\u00a0 It was assumed the customer had a <\/span>Disaster Recovery<\/span><\/a> solution in place that would support the upgrade, but that was not the case.\u00a0 Had the requirements been documented, this would not have happened.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Register for our upcoming webinar<\/a> to learn more about project management best practices<\/em><\/p>\n

To create a comprehensive Statement of Work, we need to methodically define requirements.\u00a0 The most crucial ingredient in defining requirements is the stakeholder, defined as anyone with a vested interest in the project, or anyone that will be impacted by the project.\u00a0 Stakeholders should be included in meetings where scope and requirements are being defined.\u00a0 They can open our eyes to the impacts the future project will have on the organization, environment and processes.\u00a0 They can also help define what the business and functional requirements are, and what constraints might hinder project objectives.\u00a0 Additionally, stakeholders help define what assumptions the project team is working under and how project success will be measured.\u00a0 The benefit of stakeholder involvement in defining requirements is the <\/span>collaboration<\/span><\/a> \u2013 the stakeholder meetings facilitate consensus amongst participants, ownership, and buy-in in the project.\u00a0 The collaborative approach allows stakeholders to assess multiple options to reach the project goals and mutually agree upon the best fit.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Once the requirements from the stakeholder meeting are defined, progressively elaborated and documented, a Statement of Work can be created incorporating the feedback.\u00a0 Prior to mutual execution of the Statement of Work, it is crucial that the service provider and customer review the document together to ensure both parties understand the business need, desired solution, assumptions, and scope of work.\u00a0 The Statement of Work should be updated as appropriate based on feedback from the review session(s).\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In summary, defining requirements early on is essential in keeping a future project on track, in scope and in budget.\u00a0 Stakeholders are an invaluable <\/span>resource<\/span><\/a> in defining requirements.\u00a0 Defining, documenting and incorporating requirements into the Statement of Work results in a document that is clear, through and easy to manage to, helping to avoid some of the pitfalls we earlier alluded to.\u00a0 Best of all, defining requirements leads to a project that meets the true needs of the organization.\u00a0If you’re looking for more information around IT project management, our VP of Project Management and our\u00a0Director of Project Management are holding a webinar on January 23rd<\/a> to discuss the benefits of creating a Project Management Office. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Erin Marandola, Contract Administrator, PMP Simply stated, a successful IT project is one that is completed on time and within budget.  But, how do we get there, and why are there so many project failures?  From a service provider’s perspective, a successful project avoids scope creep (the project getting out of control), which adds cost,…Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,181,458],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-miscellaneous-it","category-project-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}