We’ve all been on a project that has gone wrong - delays, budget overruns, impossible timelines that have caused our jobs to become unbearable, stressful nightmares. But in most cases, these issues can be avoided by implementing alignment and clarification methods from Day 0. Learning how to get ahead of these issues can be the foundation of new project design perspectives at your organization.
Let’s start by talking about current approaches to project design from the perspective of a service-based industry like IT consulting. Many teams start by producing a generic statement of work with loosely defined objectives, a discovery session with senior-level stakeholders sometimes leading to impractical project goals, and a project plan outlined in some spreadsheet format to never be used again.
So why is it that we’ve accepted these generic, minimal value-add approaches to alignment? To put it simply, there’s a gap in many team’s initial planning activities that is alignment to what the project’s true goal is and how we can get there.
The first step to addressing this issue is to realize and accept that early alignment processes are sometimes overlooked. The unfortunate reality is that many decision makers do not view project design as a direct contributor to what makes a project successful. Instead, we’re pressured to fast forward our attention to wireframing, inventory activities, and producing quick-win deliverables to show stakeholders how fast we can make progress. However, most of us recognize that moving forward too soon can cause trouble down the road when products of misalignment arise.
Now that we agree there’s a gap at the beginning of the project lifecycle, let’s talk about how we can practically fill it.
It’s easy to get lost along the way when solid plans aren't determined early on. We’ve become accustomed to this because of the pressures to deliver at unreasonable speeds. Teams can do something about this by applying rigor and attention to their approach from Day 0.
Twigflo can help your project team design impactful project roadmaps with budgets, resourcing, and clearly defined tasks, within a fraction of the time. Our revolutionary mission diagrams will elevate your project designs and make all stakeholders feel informed and comfortable with your team’s approach from Day 0.
Try for free @ Twigflo.com.