Let's say you want to build a box. Nothing fancy. Just a box you can use around the house. To hold stuff.
You know what a box is, right? Sure you do. It's square. Or rectangular. It's got sides, a bottom, maybe a top. You can put papers in it, or books, or fresh fruit, or even kittens. You can move it around, stack it here or there.
So let's say you are a Project Manager, and your project is to build a box to put stuff in.
That shouldn't be difficult, right? Easy-peasy.
What's the first thing you need to do?
Right. Define what the thing is for. Because that will tell you how the thing needs to be built. How it is supposed to perform. How much stuff it will hold. What size it should be. What kinds of materials are best suited for the thing.
Those are called the Requirements. Sometimes the Requirements Specification. Don't worry if you aren't sure what those are yet. We'll get into the details later. For now, just remember that they are important.
You can't run a project if you haven't defined the Requirements. Otherwise, how do you know when you are done?
So. Requirements for a Useful Box. Let's see...
Hmmm ... there are some unknowns here. X's and Y's and W's. These values must be filled in before we can get started so that we can calculate some dimensions and things. And the only way that we can fill in those numbers is if we first know what it is that we'll be putting in the Useful Box.
Oh, but maybe I'm not sure yet. Maybe I haven't figured out exactly what I might want to be putting in my Useful Box. Maybe I'm just going to make an "educated guess" about what my box will be carrying, and move on from there.
Any issues with that?
I hope you said, "Yes!", because the most important thing in the Project is to know -- with excruciating detail -- what the Project is for. If you aren't sure, there is a high probability that your guesses will be wrong.
The more detail you know about the object of your Project, the better your project is going to be.
Imagine starting this Useful Box project with a "guess" that the OTBS is a solid cube of aluminum measuring 16 cm x 16 cm x 16 cm. You build the box using dimensions of 20 cm x 20 cm x 20 cm (20% margin!). Your box is built out of 1/4-inch plywood because the density of the aluminum means it will only weigh 12.3 kg, which, at 27 pounds, will be easy to lift without breaking the wood.
But ... then you actually measure your OTBS and find that it is, in fact, 20 cm x 16 cm x 16 cm. You guessed wrong on one of the dimensions. It won't fit in your box ... which you've already built.
Worse yet, you found out that your OTBS is gold, not aluminum. And instead of weighing a nice, easy-to-lift 12.3 kg, it is 99 kg. Or, for those of you using Imperial measures, 218 pounds.
Which will break your flimsy 1/4-inch plywood boards.
But you don't find that out until the Test phase. Because your Schedule and Budget were such that you had to proceed At Risk with your Build when all you had to go on, was your best guess.
And that is how most projects work.
That is how this project worked.
We screwed up the Scope. The Size. The Magnitude. The Box.
Our customer made some guesses. We compounded it by making even more guesses. In the end, all of our guesses came together to make the result an unholy mess.
A big, long, expensive, unholy mess.
This is the story of that mess.
Not exactly, of course. I'm not naming names or pointing fingers or trying to shame people.
I'm just trying to warn you, you who are about to enter the world of Project Management.
Beware!
Here be Monsters.
You know what a box is, right? Sure you do. It's square. Or rectangular. It's got sides, a bottom, maybe a top. You can put papers in it, or books, or fresh fruit, or even kittens. You can move it around, stack it here or there.
So let's say you are a Project Manager, and your project is to build a box to put stuff in.
That shouldn't be difficult, right? Easy-peasy.
What's the first thing you need to do?
Right. Define what the thing is for. Because that will tell you how the thing needs to be built. How it is supposed to perform. How much stuff it will hold. What size it should be. What kinds of materials are best suited for the thing.
Those are called the Requirements. Sometimes the Requirements Specification. Don't worry if you aren't sure what those are yet. We'll get into the details later. For now, just remember that they are important.
You can't run a project if you haven't defined the Requirements. Otherwise, how do you know when you are done?
So. Requirements for a Useful Box. Let's see...
- The box should be X centimeters high by Y centimeters wide by Z centimeters deep. Because I have an Object To Be Stored (OTBS) that is just slightly smaller than X * Y * Z in volume and want to put it in my Useful Box.
- The box must be able to support W kilograms of weight. Because the OTBS weighs (W*0,80) kilograms and I want a 20% margin of safety in case I decide to add more stuff to the box.
- The box must be colored white because all my home decor is white and I want it to blend in.
Hmmm ... there are some unknowns here. X's and Y's and W's. These values must be filled in before we can get started so that we can calculate some dimensions and things. And the only way that we can fill in those numbers is if we first know what it is that we'll be putting in the Useful Box.
Oh, but maybe I'm not sure yet. Maybe I haven't figured out exactly what I might want to be putting in my Useful Box. Maybe I'm just going to make an "educated guess" about what my box will be carrying, and move on from there.
Any issues with that?
I hope you said, "Yes!", because the most important thing in the Project is to know -- with excruciating detail -- what the Project is for. If you aren't sure, there is a high probability that your guesses will be wrong.
The more detail you know about the object of your Project, the better your project is going to be.
Imagine starting this Useful Box project with a "guess" that the OTBS is a solid cube of aluminum measuring 16 cm x 16 cm x 16 cm. You build the box using dimensions of 20 cm x 20 cm x 20 cm (20% margin!). Your box is built out of 1/4-inch plywood because the density of the aluminum means it will only weigh 12.3 kg, which, at 27 pounds, will be easy to lift without breaking the wood.
But ... then you actually measure your OTBS and find that it is, in fact, 20 cm x 16 cm x 16 cm. You guessed wrong on one of the dimensions. It won't fit in your box ... which you've already built.
Worse yet, you found out that your OTBS is gold, not aluminum. And instead of weighing a nice, easy-to-lift 12.3 kg, it is 99 kg. Or, for those of you using Imperial measures, 218 pounds.
Which will break your flimsy 1/4-inch plywood boards.
But you don't find that out until the Test phase. Because your Schedule and Budget were such that you had to proceed At Risk with your Build when all you had to go on, was your best guess.
And that is how most projects work.
That is how this project worked.
We screwed up the Scope. The Size. The Magnitude. The Box.
Our customer made some guesses. We compounded it by making even more guesses. In the end, all of our guesses came together to make the result an unholy mess.
A big, long, expensive, unholy mess.
This is the story of that mess.
Not exactly, of course. I'm not naming names or pointing fingers or trying to shame people.
I'm just trying to warn you, you who are about to enter the world of Project Management.
Beware!
Here be Monsters.
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