Evaluating Project Opportunities

Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.

  Decision Making   Leadership   Strategy   ProjectsAtWork  

What should executives and other decision-makers look for when evaluating a proposed initiative? Three ‘C’s’ — comprehensiveness, confidence and consultation — are helpful guidelines in making project initiation decisions. Here are eight questions that can be used to assess their presence in new opportunities.

The primary focus of “Exercising Agency” was in understanding the personal influences on how project initiation decisions get made. It particularly highlighted the role of the project shaper as champion of a project, and the different ways that the project approaches their role. Very different strategies are employed depending upon whether there are effective processes in place, the political environment is collaborative and constructive, or whether the agency of the person in the project shaper role makes the critical difference.

Ultimately, an executive — or an executive team — is still going to make a determination of whether a project should proceed or not. Recognizing the turmoil involved in even getting a potential project to that juncture, a critical question is what executives should be looking for in evaluating a project opportunity that is being presented for initiation. In my book, I summarized these as "three C's": confidence, comprehensiveness and consultation. I'll explore each in turn in more detail.

In …

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