Lesson 5: Managing Your Project: Part 1
Step 2: Strategic Development
During your journeys as a Project Manager, you will discover many very interesting principles about the field (and perhaps, oh yes, about yourself as well... oh yes....).
One of the most illuminating principles you will ever discover takes place during this strategic development step.
This is because now that the project need has been identified, a strategic problem statement will be developed that will serve as the lens through which the project will be viewed by the entire project team.
This step, as James P. Lewis sagely advises, is perhaps the most difficult step that your project will encounter.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
Firstly, as we can imagine, not everyone is going to agree on what the problem statement should be for the project.
Secondly, and somewhat less obviously, these discussions about problem statements happen at the beginning of the project, usually when the senior project team is kind of feeling each other out (this is usually part of the storming stage in team building dynamics). As a result, discussions can take on a little bit of added tension. Just be aware of this and keep your cool. You’ll be glad you did.
But going back to the problem statement, well, just what is a problem statement? It is a solid and accepted definition of what the problem is that your project will solve.
Wait a sec. Didn't we do this already in the idea step?
Yes, you're right, we did look at the need back there, but we didn't analyze it in comprehensive detail; we simply wanted to establish that a need existed.
In this strategic development step, we want to go further and look at different ways of solving that need. To achieve this important aim, the project team will analyze, and ultimate choose, a project statement -- which, again, is the solid and accepted definition of what the problem is that your project will solve.
Selecting the right problem statement should be a creative experience, which means that if everyone around the table immediately agrees on what the problem statement is, then they are either exceptionally lucky, or they are not being creative. James P. Lewis offers a lesson that is, in my opinion, as applicable to projects as it is to life itself: the way a project is defined determines the possible solutions. So really try and look at the perceived problem in a different way. Approach it from the angles of various stakeholders, units, and customer bases.
Again, this is not the easiest stage you’ll encounter, but why do you want things to be easy all the time? Explain to your team that there is nothing negative about focusing on the perceived problem at this stage, but instead, it is actually a very positive thing to do. If you need to, instead of calling this a problem statement, call it a solution statement to avoid false accusations that you are being pessimistic and focusing obsessively on the problem. You know that you aren’t, and I know that you aren’t, but sometimes that just ain’t enough.
References used in this section (these books are available for order via the Resources link above):
The Project Manager’s Desk Reference, by James P. Lewis. Chapter 2; Chapter 4; Chapter 5.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, by the Project Management Institute. Chapter 5.
