Project Definition, the WHAT, WHEN and Constraints

Assigning a person to a project team is in effect a secondment to that team. The individual s priorities and loyalties now He with the project. For the period of the project, management of this resource is in the hands of the Project Manager. For individuals to feel happy in this situation they have to be reassured by the R D Manager that the performance management and appraisal systems will take this twin management aspect and loyalty into account. 

Planning of a project should start only once it has been redefined in specific terms. 

The Project Team Manager and members having been assigned to the project, their first task is to carry out a complete definition of the project. The team will know the overall goal of the project but its purpose and objectives will need to be clarified and redefined in more specific terms of defiverables, assumptions and constraints. Project definition enables all the stakeholders, both internal and external, to understand and agree upon the goals, responsibilities, assumptions and success criteria to be used. The planning of the project and the allocation of resources should only start once this has been done. 

The redefinition of the project involves listing the defiverables of the project. These include the performance requirements of the product, process or service, the overall cost of the project and the time frame for its completion. Using these factors a statement can be written which defines the objective of the project. A typical example of a project statement would be  

To develop and establish in two years time a new process for the manufacture of Product X, operating in a modified plant, to double the current production to 500 tonnes per year, the manufacturing cost to be 20% lower than at present, whilst the capital expenditure must not exceed 4 million euros. 

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