The success of our journey depends on how well we have prepared for it.
Projects are not different. Projects are a journey to move from existing to the desired state. If we feel projects are painful, it may have to do with our preparation before their start.
We may not have fully understood a few fundamental questions before starting the project, like:
- What is the objective of the project?
- Why is the project essential to us?
- What are the success criteria?
- What is the scope? More importantly, what are we not doing?
- Who should be involved?
- How can they be involved?
- Do we have enough resources?
- Do we have the right skills?
- What are the known risks? How are we going to manage them?
- Is it the right time to do this?
- What are the problems that we are going to solve?
- What are the potential opportunities?
- How would we know the possible solution options?
- Who else may have executed a similar project before?
- What can we learn from others and past experiences?
Yes, these questions are not very exciting to answer. It seems too easy to kick-start the next project. This could be the exact reason we are struggling to execute it too!
