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Software projects are notoriously difficult to define. Unlike a building, you can't see software or touch it or feel it or visualise it and it's hard for the layman to get a conceptual grip of its size or cost or how long it might take to build.
Good project definition is vital if stakeholders are to have realistic and common
expectations, if estimates are to be reasonably accurate and if timescales are to be
achievable. But how do you turn sometimes vague ideas into properly defined projects?
Project definition is one of the topics covered in this Project Management Course. The course takes a project from the glimmer of an idea and describes the steps that should be followed to turn that idea or business need into a defined project with a business case, a budget, a plan and resource commitments.
The course shows the typical contents of a Project Definition Document (or Project Definition Report, Project Initiation Document, Project Terms of Reference, Project Charter, Project Management Definition Document - whichever you prefer). A Project Definition Workshop can be an effective way of getting agreement to a project's definition. PDWs are covered: who attends, who runs it, when does it happen, what should be covered, etc.
Clearly, a key part of project definition is establishing the project scope, but a project can only be considered properly defined when several other things are established:
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The
I.T. Project Management Course
describes project roles and responsibilities and how these should be communicated, agreed and
documented in the Project Definition Document (PDD). The course covers how resource commitments
should be negotiated and documented. Indeed, the detail behind the topics listed above, and
others, are all covered in the course. The course will show participants how to define projects
and it will also show participants how to manage projects.
More information about Project Definition Workshops can be found here:
Project
Definition Workshop (PDW).
Project Definition is discussed more fully in this
Free Online
Project Management Book
Risk Management in I.T. Projects
The Tale of Three Project Managers
Towards a Project-Centric World
Quality Management in I.T. Projects
Project Management Proverbs, Saying, Laws and Jokes
So You Want To Be A Project Manager?
Project Management in the Public Sector
Copyright M Harding Roberts
www.hraconsulting-ltd.co.uk
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