Many organizations have experienced project managers, established governance processes, and sophisticated delivery tools. Yet projects still enter execution with unclear outcomes, conflicting stakeholder expectations, undefined ownership, and no agreed measure of success.
Once the request has been labeled a “project,” the project manager is often expected to resolve these gaps while also creating the plan, managing delivery, and meeting the original timeline.
Before a request enters delivery, I believe teams should be able to answer several fundamental questions:
- What problem or opportunity are we addressing?
- What measurable outcome are we expecting?
- Who owns the business decision?
- Have the affected stakeholders aligned on the need?
- What evidence supports the request’s value and urgency?
- Do we understand the capacity, risk, and governance implications?
- What would indicate that the request is not yet ready?
In your organization, who determines whether a request is sufficiently defined to become a project—the sponsor, PMO, portfolio leadership, business analyst, or project manager?
Which readiness condition is most frequently missing when work reaches your delivery teams?
Disclosure: I created Lean Intake Analysis™, a methodology focused on clarifying and evaluating work before execution, and I am developing LIA Compass™ to support that workflow. I am interested in learning how other practitioners manage this decision point within their organizations.
