One of my project managers planned and estimated and executed a feasibility/prototype project - in other words, his project was to actually only execute a segment of the work to prove wether or not we could use the technology successfully. If it showed success, the next step would have to been to continue to Phase 2 and actually implement a large project to use the technology and create an application. As it turned out, our prototyping proved unsuccessful - therefore the PM stopped the project. He said he was successful because he set out to do a prototype to wisely examine whether or not a full scale effort was feasible based on the results of his prototype project.
Problem is, there are folks who say this was an actual project failure as a significant amount of money was spent to prove this in the feasibility study/prototype project.
My question is: what is the criteria/guideline that says whether or not a feasibility study/prototype project is successful and is a good idea if afterwards, it helps you decide if continuing is a waste of money? Is there something that says if you spend 30% or your total estimated project budget on the feasibility study and can provie its a good idea or not, then its succesful. But spending more than 30% is a failure?
Any insight is much appreciated... Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Suzy, in response to your post, I would suggest the following. First, you might consider having defined and measurable objectives or project thresholds for Phase 1 with respect to cost, time, quality, and risk as part of the project definition. If the objectives are not being met, you can consider terminating or rescuing the Phase 1 project effort. Next, I would suggest that you put in place a Continuous Improvement process. As you said, you have folks saying this was a project failure and that too much money was spent. They might be right, they might be wrong – but that’s not the point. The feedback of the project team is important and always valuable. So, give them the opportunity to document their observations, lessons learned, and recommendations for improvement and have those Continuous Improvement recommendations forwarded to the appropriate management authority and owner of your PM process. Turn the useless hall talk and unqualified chit-chat into real value (opportunities for improvement) for your project organization. Results will follow as will positive, construction attitudes. Good luck..! – Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
