According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), projects can often fail because of the following factors:
- Project managers or owners focus more on technical details rather than business value.
- There is a lack of a standardized view on how to measure results.
- There are no measurements to evaluate productivity in order to compare this data to similar projects.
- Project managers don’t have a certain methodology to plan and execute the projects.
- Customers don’t take an active part in project planning.
- Team members are not motivated.
- Team members don’t have enough tools or skills to develop a project.
As you can see, there are lots of factors can lead to the project’s failure. Thus, if you are on your start line to create something new, make sure that you know how to start the one successfully. In this post, you will learn about the main steps to follow when starting a project, what factors affect success, and which tools to use.
What Is a Project Management Triangle?
Managers use the project management triangle model to identify and analyze the key issues that they can meet during the project execution. The core constraints of any project include scope, time, and cost that are altogether known as PM triangle.
To be prepared for any difficulties, you should clearly understand each of the points of the triangle.
Scope
The scope of the project includes deliverables that should be completed. Any changes in the scope can influence cost and time. Thus, it should be well-planned and understood by all the team members.
Time
The time needed to complete the project tasks depends on many factors including the number of team members, their experience, and skills. Considering time aspects, project managers have to remember about deadlines.
Cost
Any costs should be estimated beforehand; that is crucial for both project managers and customers. An allocated budget ensures that the product is developed on time and within budget.
As you can see in the image above, quality stands in the center of the project management triangle. Although quality is not a part of the triangle, it is considered to be the primary objective of any product delivery that impacts the project’s success. Below is a step-by-step guideline to seamlessly start your project considering constraints triangle into account.
Initiation Phase: Steps to Start a Project
Step 1 – Business Case
A business case will help you find out and structure the reasons why you start a given project. Business cases, usually, support business needs and are adaptable to fit the risks and scope of a certain project, however, structurally will be the same for each of your projects.
Simply put, it is a document that must be easily understood. Typically, a business case consists of a preface, a table of contents, a project briefing, an introduction, a scope, and financial data along with some conclusions.
Step 2 – Feasibility Study
The next step in the initiation phase is conducting a feasibility analysis. It demonstrates all the business problems and all the possible ways to solve those problems. This study is aimed to determine the opportunities and document what specifically is required to accomplish the project successfully. At the same time, participants of a feasibility analysis identify all the possible risks along with the means to eliminate them.
Step 3 – Project Charter
Charters determine the structure, objectives, and project execution plan. They contain detailed information about the deliverables and scope, roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders.
Step 4 – Team
You can’t start a project without a suitable team with the right skills and experience. Thus, your next step is to write job descriptions. In these descriptions, you should provide detailed information about the roles and responsibilities of each team member. Also, you should list the experience and skills that you need to accomplish the project.
Step 5 – Project Office
The next step of any initiation phase is to determine the workspace where the team will be based while developing the project. You should also discuss the communication and technology stack issues. The workflow must be outlined, as well.
Step 6 – Review
After all the steps of the initiation phase are followed, you need to review everything. By reviewing the phase, you will be able to determine if all the steps were followed and if all the requirements are met. This phase should be constantly reviewed within the whole SDLC.
Factors Affecting the Success of a Project Start Phase
Any project idea may be great but not be realized because of the wrong initiation steps. Thus, you should consider the key factors of a productive project.
- Validated idea
- Clear goals
- Clear requirements
- Concrete milestones
- Steps to follow
- Encouraged team
- Customer’s support
A lot of projects start with great ideas and the intention to take over the world. However, without enough motivation and enthusiasm, projects can fail. Before starting to develop a project, validate if it is valuable to your buying persona. You can consult with Diceus dedicated development team on how to conduct a proper business analysis or ask them to carry it out.
To achieve success in project development, you should also set clear goals. With concrete objectives in place, you will be able to develop the right strategy. Based on your key objectives, you will sort out the major requirements for the project and set milestones along with the deadlines. As you can see, there are a lot of factors you should keep in mind to gain success. Besides, you must have a set of specific tools to track time, monitor progress, plan milestones; be sure you have also professional developers and other needed resources to accomplish your project.
