Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Roger
The answer in most cases is a business case. What will be the benefits the project brings versus the costs of the project and is the return on investment acceptable.
However in some cases which is organisational dependent there are power basis who have enough influence to decide something has to be done and start a project without a business case. In those cases the project budget is the decision base. Does the project budget fit the departmental/organisational budget? In this case it also important the power base remains the project sponsor otherwise the reason for existence will vaporise.
good luck
Hans
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Roger Francis AucoinManager, Process Quality & Compliance, ISO, ICO, RMO| New York State - Statewide Financial SystemWynantskill, Ny, United States
Thanks for your response, Hans. Do you have a formal process you could share with me?
Thanks - Roger Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Prince 2 is the methodology which is business case driven and demanding justification of the proejct beforehand. The methodology is introduced by OGC and the website to go to is http://www.ogc.gov.uk/. Click quik links Prince 2 to have a understanding. Training can be obtained anywhere in the world and at short notice
For power base justification is relationship management and stakeholder management the solution. Make sure you mae him successful
let me know if this helps
Hans Saving Changes...
Roger Francis AucoinManager, Process Quality & Compliance, ISO, ICO, RMO| New York State - Statewide Financial SystemWynantskill, Ny, United States
The "project charter" is the document that officially turns work into a "project", according to the PMI PMBOK Guide. I have written a number of articles about a process I used to issue project charters. We called them "opportunity documents", but they did all the same things a project charter would.
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Hi Roger,
Typically, a project comes to life in response to 3 major factors:
- a contract, resulted from a sales activity (RFP, direct sale, recurring orders etc).
- an internal business need, typically expressed in a business case
- a program or portfolio that spins off a project to deliver a part of overall deliverables.
As Alex mentioned, the most common practice (thus reflected in PMBOK Guide) is to authorize the project by the means of a Project Charter. However, based on the 3 stimuli indicated above, the Charter could have different structure and sometime even a different title. For example, in most procurement situations, the Proposal or the Response to RFP actually serves as the Project Charter and a separate document is not usually created.
Hope it helps, please post again if you have follow-on questions.
George Jucan
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Roger Francis AucoinManager, Process Quality & Compliance, ISO, ICO, RMO| New York State - Statewide Financial SystemWynantskill, Ny, United States
I'm actually looking for the process or processes a business user would go through before the work is approved to be a project by a charter. Maybe the question is too enterprise-specific for an answer here. Saving Changes...
I agree that the policies and procedures are organization-specific, but I think there are some common practices and ideas, too.
I consistently see some kind of authorizing group or person. Some companies have committees, some have individual decision makers.
I have worked for several larger companies that have scoring models to decide what is approved and what is not. They rank all their proposals according to their score, and cut the list off when the run out of budget or resources.
I have also seen that most companies with a scoring model will often introduce exceptions for "special" projects. I think the scoring models are over-emphasized in the project management literature. I see senior executives or executive committees often going against their own scoring model, because they know a project is important despite its score.
I also recommend that companies have an "out of cycle" approval process for the sudden opportunity or crisis that demand a project launch now. One place I worked, we had a team of executives who could be called together within a short period of time to make these choices.
Every good process I have seen involve some kind of a business case or proposal for the project. Somehow the business impact of the proposal needs to be presented, so a decision-maker can decide if it is worth investigating.
This is one of my main passions -- project charters and strategy. Any specific questions, please contact me anytime. Saving Changes...
Jayson ReadProject ManagerEden Prairie, Mn, United States
Let's not forget common sense as well. I think it depends on the project and the business sponsor's perspective of the project. Are you talking about a list of workflow improvements or are you talking about re-inventing the workflow?
Don't get me wrong, I thrive on process, but sometimes you just have to make the judgement call and gut check and ask yourself (and your sponsor), "Does it make sense to give this the official 'PROJECT' stamp?" Saving Changes...
Michael WellesManaging Director| EdWel Project and Risk Management TrainingChicago, Il, United States
When do you think it occurs? This is the most important question - everyone will have a different definition for what is a project. Of course, internal governance dictats provide guidance, but what of the projects that fall below the radar. Knowing your definition determines your response - if you don't know what is a project to you - you won't know what to do.
