Summary

Once projects are set up and going it is hard to change their course. Project set up is, therefore, a vital stage in your end-to-end value delivery process.

In our definition of ‘Project Set Up’ we include

1. defining the terms of reference
2. conducting a feasibility study if necessary
3. defining the project’s scope
4. gathering the business requirements
5. selecting any solution software or technology
6. presenting your business case for investment to deliver and realize the benefits.

So, this is a very major part of the project. Get it wrong and you can destroy most of your project’s potential value before you’ve got to the more expensive design or delivery stages.

This is also a time when everyone is endeavouring to find out what is required, what is the best direction, the best approach and the best scope. There are a lot of major decisions to be made, so the governance team has to be on its game — active and informed, decisive and focused.

This “How to govern project set up” Guide is an essential support for all Project Sponsors and Steering Committee members from the commencement of the project.

This Guide takes you through the end-to-end project set up process, even discussing how to name your project (an often overlooked cause of credibility loss).

Project Set Up is when you set the direction, put your project ‘on the rails’ that you believe will deliver the results you desire. (If you put it on the wrong ‘rails’ it is very difficult to change it later.)

But there are many pitfalls.

1. Business projects can be defined as technology projects and head off down a technical solution path before the business needs are known.
2. The whole step of defining what the business needs can be skipped or underdone, causing massive rework and time/cost extensions later
3. Feasibility studies can go on forever or miss the whole purpose (to test the feasibility) and instead focus on just justifying going ahead
4. A technical solution can be bought that does not meet your requirements, but you’re then stuck with it
5. The business case can fail to identify the true range of benefits and, therefore, struggle to justify any investment. And so on.

Project Set Up is an important time for the governance team to be actively directing and controlling the project.

This Guide brings a strategic and business perspective to project governance with a special emphasis on value delivery management. At this stage the value of your project can be compromised or even lost if your project is not set up for success. Proven over the past 9 years, this Guide provides you with the information you need to be effective. It brings a ‘value focus’ (as opposed to just a cost focus) to project governance. It ensures your project is set up for success. This is the VDM difference.

The “How to govern project set up” guide takes you through the 8 key project set up governance steps, explaining both what your roles and accountabilities are and how to fulfil them successfully.

Benefits

This Guide

1. explains the role of the governance team (Sponsor/Steering Committee) throughout this most important stage when the governance team can have its most impact
2. brings new concepts (like the two types of scope) to make governance easier and allow you to focus on the issues that matter
3. equips you to govern the technical elements from a business perspective
4. ensures that what is proposed in the business case is solid, justifiable value proposition.

If there is any stage where the governance needs to be ‘on its game’ the most, it is project set up. Hence the need for this Guide

Who should read

This Guide is designed to be read primarily by all those in project governance roles (Sponsor/Steering Committee) but the Guide is also useful for key Stakeholders, the PMO and Auditors to understand what should happen at the governance level at each stage of the project.

Contents

1. Understanding the end-to-end value delivery process
2. Understanding project set up
3. Understanding your (set up) roles and accountabilities
4. The end-to-end project set up process
5. How to govern your project’s ‘terms of reference’
6. How to assess your project’s feasibility
7. How to name your project
8. How to determine your governance approach
9. How to govern your project’s ‘problem’ scope
10. How to govern your business requirements gathering process
11. How to govern your business needs specification
12. How to govern your project’s ‘desired business outcomes’
13. How to govern the (technical) design
14. How to select the technology (and software)
15. How to justify the value of your project
16. How to monitor that the Project Set Up stage has been finished.

In addition, we also provide you with some additional supporting tools and resources to make use of this Guide easy and effective.

Bonus

The Project Governance needs survey
A three-page self-evaluation of governance knowledge importance, expertise and training needs, covering 28 governance topics. Allows for the need for governance education and training to be determined. Out of the right box
A value delivery management article by Jed Simms describing the realities in relation to software configuration versus customisation and the implications of planning for an ‘out of the box’ system implementation. Essential considerations when considering software selection.