Establishing a Project
Intended Audience |
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If you are a customer, this article is for you. |
People who are considering involving Cornerstone Software Ltd in a software development or other IT related project and want to know what information Cornerstone requires in order to plan and cost its part of the project. |
Introduction |
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Your project will work better if you provide us with a written project brief. |
Cornerstone’s planning process delivers a Detailed Project Plan, costing and timeline. There is a high level of customer involvement during planning. We have found that the process works best for customers who have prepared an initial written brief. Cornerstone’s project planning process will be centred on your brief. This paper suggests what you might wish to include in your brief to Cornerstone. |
Writing The Project Brief |
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Your project brief should focus on the ‘big picture’. |
The project brief is a broad, high-level view of the project and it is important to focus on making sure that the breadth of the problem is stated. It is possible to get side-tracked or involved in detail when writing a project brief, so bear in mind that it will be verified and analysed during project planning. Important or complex areas will be fleshed out as a matter of course. The main areas your brief will cover are:
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Overview |
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The Project Brief’s overview should answer:
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This is a full explanation of what the project is expected to achieve, in other words the overall outcome and how will it improve the existing situation. This will allow the project scope to be established and the objectives to be defined. You may include information on the general context within which the project is to be developed together with details of the other business processes with which it is associated. General questions to be answered are:
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Organisation |
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Identify the Project Sponsor and consider who the stakeholders are in your project brief. |
Generally in a project there are roles to be fulfilled as follows: Sponsor This is the person in the company who is responsible for the financial outlay associated with the project and for the end decision on extension of the scope or other matters that may affect the financial status of the project. Stakeholders These are normally best described in a broad flow chart indicating the structure of the organisation, indicating and describing all areas that may be affected by the project. |
Critical Success Factors |
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Define the Critical Success Factors so that later on you can gauge whether the project is meeting its objectives. |
Those aspects of the project, which are critical to its success. For example, this may relate to deliverable dates for certain aspects or all of the project, critical performance or functionality that absolutely must be achieved. Fixed business changes or developments that must result from the project or any other issues that may be apparent at this early stage which make the project viable. Critical success factors will become apparent as planning and design proceeds. However, what we are looking for here is an indication from a high-level business point of view as to what will determine the success or failure of the project. Critical success factors allow measurement at the end of the project as its success or otherwise. |
Other Related Projects |
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Identify other initiatives within your organisation that may affect this project. |
Are there any other aspects of your business that are being developed or considered for strategic development which may directly or indirectly affect the project under consideration? |
Breakdown/Decomposition |
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Consider whether the project can naturally be broken down into smaller parts. |
The overview is now considered in its entirety and decomposed into two or more sectors which are able to be considered as stand alone phases in the project e.g. there may be separate business areas, sets of business rules and objectives as a subset of the main project. |