How to assess project proposals

Project Options papers will be my death

3 Bloody Options

Not more, not less!

3

Why do we do them and why are they a mistake?

As far as I can work it out, you present 3 options for two reasons

To get stakeholder buy-in

To get stakeholder buy-in

2. To force yourself to think through comparisons

We are recommended to investigate at least 3 options because it helps us stretch our imaginations

And these days we are often asked to put up the “do nothing” option for comparison purposes.

(So technically you’ll be getting 4 for the price of 3.)

So, 3 bloody options.

After a while you’ll find a pattern.

Buy, build, partner Tactical, Strategic, Hybrid Team 1’s goals, Team 2’s goals, Everybody wins

Buy, build, partner

Tactical, Strategic, Hybrid

Team 1’s goals, Team 2’s goals, Everybody wins

Are these really options?

Here is another example

Tactical, partial functionality Full blown integrated IT solution Partly developed IT solution with significant limits

Tactical, partial functionality Full blown integrated IT solution Partly developed IT solution with significant limits Obviously you’ll pass on this. This is the under promising mode The team’s jobs depend on this one

Which one would you pick?

And lifecycle costing means the big up front investment always wins.

As an executive what else can you do but go with the analysis & recommendation?

Well, there is one or two questions you could ask.

1. What are the delivery risks?

How do we know we can pull this off?

They sound like the same question but they aren’t

What are the delivery risks People capability Requirements stability Dependency on other projects Goal alignment The Stakeholders (your frontline management) are ‘on board’ You are ready to spend the time on this project

People capability

Requirements stability

Dependency on other projects

Goal alignment

The Stakeholders (your frontline management) are ‘on board’

You are ready to spend the time on this project

How do we know we can do this? Have we done something like this before? How often to we succeed, partially succeed, or fail? Does our Project Management team have a track record of success?

Have we done something like this before?

How often to we succeed, partially succeed, or fail?

Does our Project Management team have a track record of success?

You might also like to ask this:

What happens if we fail?

Projects cost a lot of money.

Just because you are in front of experts, don’t let them drive you into a corner.

www.betterprojects.net Questions and comments are welcomed. (Title page photo by llawliet and CC via Flickr )