167
8
Creativity and the Defining Process
INTRODUCTION
e dening process is the rst of six processes and the only one that
is theoretically completed before all the other ones are applied. It
denes,at a high level, the answers to who, what, when, where, why,
and how.
BENEFITS
Many benets are attributed to the dening process. It helps dene the
scope, identify key stakeholders and their interests, garners support,
obtains early commitment, initiates communications, and provides
overall parameters for a project.
CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE
Studies have shown that, unfortunately, failure to perform this process
has a tremendous impact downstream on a project, especially during
the executing, and monitoring and controlling processes. Failure occurs
frequently on information technology projects and is reected in a cartoon
whereby the project manager tells the team to start coding while he goes
upstairs to see what the customer wants. In the end, the failure to properly
execute the dening process leads to rework, negative relationships, and
overall poor performance.
168 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
DELIVERABLES
e dening process (see Figure 8.1) has several project management
deliverables, including:
• Business case
• Project charter
• Requirements documentation
• Scope denition
• Stakeholder analysis
• Statement of work
IDEAL STATE
Ideally, the business case and the project charter are complete before
project managers come on board. Project managers need to understand
Preparation
Verification
and
Production
Concentration
Illumination
Incubation
- Business Case
- Project Charter
- Requirements Documentation
- Scope Definition
- Stakeholder Analysis
- Statement of Work
FIGURE 8.1
Dening process and deliverables.
Creativity and the Dening Process • 169
both the deliverables and concentrate on producing a statement of work,
performing stakeholder analysis, dening the scope more clearly, and
producing requirements documentation.
Realistically, perhaps more so than not, the opposite exists. e business
case is either nonexistent or partially complete, and the same goes for the
project charter. e scope denition and requirements may be vague, and the
onus is on project managers to pursue the necessary denitiveness required
to produce a product or deliver a service. As for stakeholders, project man-
agershave to seek out stakeholders beyond the one or two that are already
probably identied. is circumstance confronting project managers oen
provides, ironically, an opportunity to exercise creativity right away.
CONTEXT
ere are several contextual factors that project managers oen face when
they are assigned during the dening process. Here are just a few:
Quite frequently, the project sponsor or customer (who may or may
not be one and the same) never bothers to develop even a straw horse of
any of the deliverables. e project manager assumes the responsibility of
ensuring that dened deliverables are created.
Additionally, the context of the project may aect how much time and
eort went into producing the deliverables. Contextual factors, such as
potential budget cuts, management instability, managerial indecisiveness,
bureaucracy, lack of clarity of goals and objectives, unavailability of infor-
mation and data, and just plain fear in the ranks can all impact the quality
of the project management deliverables for this process and, indeed, for
all subsequent processes and phases in the project and product life cycles,
respectively.
CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS
Considerable ambiguity and vagueness oen occur in the dening
process. A project is oen, if at all, little dened and the stakeholders are
not clearly identied. In addition, some potential stakeholders may just
not like the idea of a project because it invades their turf or they do not nd
170 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
it compatible with the beliefs or values embraced by the organization in
general, or the leadership in particular. Other stakeholders may not want
to communicate or coordinate with each other due to issues unrelated to
the project. Others may be fearful of the consequences of participating on
a project and would rather sit on the sidelines until they see who supports
it and how well it progresses.
Another challenge and constraint is obtaining clarity in project scope.
All too oen, customers only have a vague idea of what they want, let alone
what they need. Customer confusion can lead to frustration on everyone’s
part, especially for members of the project team. In the end, of course,
it boils down to communication among the customer, sponsor, and the
project manager.
Some common creative challenges and constraints that may be present
during this process for a project are shown in Table8.1.
TABLE8.1
Dening Process Challenges and Constraints
Creative Challenge
and Constraint Example
Faster, better, cheaper
philosophy
Stakeholder desire to see results quickly
Fear Feeling, by some stakeholders, that they might lose power and
inuence as a result of a project
Groupthink Stakeholders, such as a management team, subscribes to a set
of beliefs that may not embrace a project despite its economic
advantages
Hierarchy Senior management dictates what types of projects are
included in an organization’s portfolio
Lack of sharing Information that could impact a decision about a project is not
shared by key stakeholders
Management’s lack of
responsiveness
Certain stakeholders, specically management, does not
participate in dening key elements of a project
Mores, beliefs, values A perception by certain stakeholders that a particular project
is not the type embraced historically by an organization,
regardless of the business case
Poor communications Jargon used by certain categories of stakeholders, making it
dicult to share and understand information
Poor coordination A stakeholder’s perception that a project is the sole province of
a specic organization
Silos Stakeholders not wanting to participate in the dening process
because of another stakeholder (e.g., Engineering not
working with Sales and Marketing)
Creativity and the Dening Process • 171
CREATIVE ABILITIES
Project managers will have to be highly creative in this process, especially
when it comes to obtaining information for the vision of a project, as well
as receiving buy-in from signicant stakeholders. Failure to achieve both
will result in radiating problems throughout the entire life cycle of the
project and even beyond (e.g., operations and maintenance).
Some of the relevant creative abilities that project managers may nd
useful for this process are shown in Table8.2.
GROUNDWORK FOR CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT
Project managers, during this process, will oen nd themselves having
to take the initiative to complete the necessary project management
deliverables. It will behoove them to develop creative solutions to the
challenges and constraints presented in the execution of this process.
ey must encourage interaction among potential stakeholders, further
information sharing and data, establish what is not important, align the
project with organizational interests, and enable the denition of the issues
and problems to address.
Some of the possible necessary actions that project managers may have to
do to lay the groundwork for a creative environment are shown in Table8.3.
GROUNDWORK FOR INDIVIDUAL CREATIVITY
For the most part, the number of people on a project is small. e people
participating in the process are individuals who have been assigned to the
core team, and their participation is somewhat preliminary. Most team
members perform the role of a subject matter expert or provide some
power or expertise to have a project on everyone’s radar by knowing about
it and providing the information and approval signatures for signicant
project management deliverables.
Some actions that project managers can take to allow people to be
creative are outlined in Table8.4.
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