I spend most of my time on the strategy side of project and program management. Ranging from enterprise approaches to program management to specific project management activities. I'm exposed to a variety of ideas about how to improve products or processes. Software systems architecture, government reporting, oversight and or insight initiatives, strategy initiatives for process improvements.
Every client I work with, every team I'm a member of, possesses a nearly limitless well of good ideas. The problem is not all the ideas "should" be considered. I've come to realize that asking a set of "challenge questions" is one way to focus these groups on searching for good ideas in the sea of possible ideas. Let's say there is a suggestion on how to proceed with one of these ideas, or a proposed enterprise system that might solve a big problem somewhere in the organization, or even a new product idea. Given these suggestions...
- What are the actions that must be taken to assure a successful outcome?
- What would be a set of phrases that describe our "commitment to perform" these actions?
- From these commitment phrases, what are the deliverables that show tangible evidence of progress?
- How can these deliverables be traced to a measurable value for the project?
- What are the units of measure of this value?
- Is there is time phased plan that shows how and when this value is delivered to the customer or funding agency?
The answers to these questions should be asked independent of any project management methodology or guidelines, since they are business value delivery questions. In fact they should be asked of any suggested approach.
