Is your project feasible?

The best way to find out whether your project is feasible is to complete a Feasibility Study. This process helps you gain confidence that the solution you need to build can be implemented on time and under budget. So here’s how to do it in 5 simple steps…

Completing a Feasibility Study

A Feasibility Study needs to be completed as early in the Project Life Cycle as possible. The best time to complete it is when you have identified a range of different alternative solutions and you need to know which solution is the most feasible to implement. Here’s how to do it…

Step 1: Research the Business Drivers
In most cases, your project is being driven by a problem in the business. These problems are called “business drivers” and you need to have a clear understanding of what they are, as part of your Feasibility Study.
For instance, the business driver might be that an IT system is outdated and is causing customer complaints, or that two businesses need to merge because of an acquisition. Regardless of the business driver, you need to get to the bottom of it so you fully understand the reasons why the project has been kicked off.
Find out why the business driver is important to the business, and why it’s critical that the project delivers a solution to it within a specified timeframe. Then find out what the impact will be to the business, if the project slips.

Step 2: Confirm the Alternative Solutions
Now you have a clear understanding of the business problem that the project addresses, you need to understand the alternative solutions available.
If it’s an IT system that is outdated, then your alternative solutions might include redeveloping the existing system, replacing it or merging it with another system.
Only with a clear understanding of the alternative solutions to the business problem, can you progress with the Feasibility Study.

Step 3: Determine the Feasibility
You now need to identify the feasibility of each solution. The question to ask of each alternative solution is “can we deliver it on time and under budget?”
To answer this question, you need to use a variety of methods to assess the feasibility of each solution. Here are some examples of ways you can assess feasibility:

Research: Perform online research to see if other companies have implemented the same solutions and how they got on.
Prototyping: Identify the part of the solution that has the highest risk, and then build a sample of it to see if it’s possible to create.
Time-boxing: Complete some of the tasks in your project plan and measure how long it took vs. planned. If you delivered it on time, then you know that your planning is quite accurate.

Step 4: Choose a Preferred Solution
With the feasibility of each alternative solution known, the next step is to select a preferred solution to be delivered by your project. Choose the solution that; is most feasible to implement, has the lowest risk, and you have the highest confidence of delivering.
You’ve now chosen a solution to a known business problem, and you have a high degree of confidence that you can deliver that solution on time and under budget, as part of the project.

Step 5:
It’s now time to take your chosen solution and reassess its feasibility at a lower level. List all of the tasks that are needed to complete the solution. Then run those tasks by your team to see how long they think it will take to complete them. Add all of the tasks and timeframes to a project plan to see if you can do it all within the project deadline. Then ask your team to identify the highest risk tasks and get them to investigate them further to check that they are achievable. Use the techniques in Step 3 to give you a very high degree of confidence that it’s practically achievable. Then document all of the results in a Feasibility Study.

After completing these 5 steps, get your Feasibility Study approved by your manager so that everyone in the project team has a high degree of confidence that the project can deliver successfully.

Get Some Templates Here for Free

MEA (Means-Ends Analysis) is an a approach that puts together aspects of both forward and backward reasoning in that both the condition and action portions of rules are considered when we decide which rules to apply. The logic of the process takes into account the gap between the current situation and the desired goal – where we wish to get to and proposes actions in order to close the gap between the two.

The method uses a set of rules that enable the goal to be achieved iteratively. The rules consist of two parts: rules that are prerequisites and ones that show the changes to be implemented.

MEA works by considering the present position as the current state and the objective as the goal state. The differences between the desired and the goal state are considered and actions are proposed that reduce the ‘gap’ between the initial and desired states.

Since the process is working from the current state towards a goal it is said to be doing forward chaining which implies a search strategy and a procedure that regards goal achievement as success – or if the outcome of a sub-goal is failure a new search is begun (or the process terminates as not possible).

Consider the following examples.

1. In a travel problem the current state and the goal state are defined by physical locations where we are now and where we have to get to.
2. In an assembly problem such as an IKEA flat pack the current state and the goal state are defined by the raw materials lying in a heap along with instructions on the floor and the finished product in your kitchen.

Aunt Agatha and the invite to tea

Aunt Agatha lives in Brighton and has invited me to tea this afternoon – she has a lot of money which she may leave to me which is actually a longer term goal for this journey. I am sitting in my office in London and need to decide how to get to Brighton.

Now there are lots of ways to do this: train, car, bus, on foot, private jet or roller blades but I subject myself to the following cost constraints:

• I must arrive at Brighton today within three hours
• The journey must cost no more than $100
• Any distance less than one mile must be walked

To begin this process I consider the available means against my constraints and decide on taking the train via Victoria to Brighton. To do this I need to leave my office and travel to the main station at Victoria which is a new goal.

To get to Victoria I can walk, take a taxi, bus or go by underground. Because of time constraints and cost I decide to take the underground to Victoria – this becomes a new sub goal. The nearest tube station being less than one mile away I walk

On arrival at the station I find the line is down due to a breakdown (goal failure). I can return on foot to get my car to drive to Brighton but this moves me away from my goal on cost and distance. I decide to take the bus to Victoria which becomes a new goal and as the distance is less than one mile I walk to the bus station.

I take the bus to Victoria alight and walk to the station office and purchase a ticket to Brighton. At Brighton I have to get to Agatha’s house – I can use the Bus, Taxi or Walk. As the distance is less than one mile I walk and arrive at Aunt Agatha’s house the end goal.

Just then my cell phone rings with a message and it’s Aunt Agatha, ‘I hope you don’t mind but I forgot I have to be in London today perhaps we can make it next week…’ Arghhhhhhhh!!!

Some problems for you to solve…

Vicars and Tarts

There are 3 Vicars and 3 Tarts and a boat on one side of a river and the church on the other. How can the 6 of them get across the river for morning prayers in the boat subject to the following constraints?

1. There must be at least one person in the boat
2. There cannot be more than two people in the boat at any time
3. There cannot be more Tarts than Vicars on either bank otherwise the tarts will take advantage the vicars and commit original sin.

Three coins

Three coins lie on a table in the order tails, heads, and tails. In precisely three moves make them face either all heads or all tails.

Project Audit – A check List

The primary purpose of a project audit is to find the reasons for apparent failings in the project process, and answer:

• What is the current state of the project
• Is the project going to deliver something useful that meets requirements?
• Is the technical approach being used still appropriate
• Is the business case still valid?
• Is the project organised in an effective way
• Is the project context hindering or helping progress
• Are industry standard project processes being followed
• Is the project following industry best practice development methods?
• What should be changed to improve the project focus?

The output of a project audit will be the answers to these questions and a practical assessment what can be done to improve and fix problems?

Areas of investigation

Project management

• Does the project communicate effectively with its sponsors and other stakeholders
• Are decisions taken rationally and quickly?
• Does the management team have appropriate skills and experience?
• Project organisation and staffing
• Is the project divided into effective work units (teams)?
• Is there capacity within the team to handle the workload?
• Are the teams located appropriately?
• Are roles and responsibilities identified and clear?
• Are internal and external communications effective?
• Does the staff have appropriate skills and experience to do the job?
• Is staff working in a suitable physical environment?

Project processes

• Are project controls in place?
• How are work-packages identified and allocated?
• How is progress managed?
• How is change managed?
• Is proper version and configuration management in place?

Project planning and reporting

• What kind of plan is there?
• Is the level of detail appropriate?
• How has the plan been validated and agreed?
• How is progress against plan reported?
• Where is the project against the agreed plan and what are the reasons for deviations?
• Are the exception plans in place?
• Is the project actually at the point where progress reports say it is?
• How feasible is achieving the future goals in the plan?

Technology choice and usage

• What tools and technologies are being used?
• Why were these tools and technologies selected?
• Is the selection in line with industry best practice?
• Are appropriate skill-sets available to manage technology set?

System architecture

• How do the pieces that make up the solution fit together?
• Can the solution meet the quality requirements (speed, load, reliability? etc.)?
• How are technical decisions made? Is there a design authority?
• How are technical decisions recorded?
• How is technical feasibility demonstrated?

Functional requirements

• What is the requirements analysis process?
• How are users involved in the process?
• Are the requirements clear, complete and consistent?

Software design

• How are functional requirements turned into solutions?
• What kind of design documents is produced?

Code quality

• Are coding standards in place and followed?
• Is the code clear, efficient and well-organised?

Testing

• What kinds of testing are carried out?
• What testing strategy is in place?
• How is testing planned and managed?
• Is there a “test to fail” or “test driven” philosophy?
• Is testing automated?
• How are test cases identified?
• What kinds of test tools are used?

Royston

The process is best done within a workshop concept. So organise a team meeting of around 7 to 10 interested parties who are experts or knowledgeable in the domain to be considered.

The process:

Step 1 – First agree the area to be considered and the core assumptions. For example ‘we will consider the Softhouse organisation and the opportunities to grow the market in the States.

Step 2 – Use a brainstorming technique such as nominal group and ask the team first to think about the area we have chosen and what the issues in delivering this approach are. They write down (on their own) what could be the barriers or carriers to entering the new market in the States onto post-it notes or just make a list on paper before them.

Step 3 – They place their post it notes (or the facilitator) in turn onto the grid as shown in the diagram below – barriers to threats and carriers to opportunities.

Step 4 – Brainstorm as in step 2 and consider the organisation (Softhouse) and what are its unique strengths or capabilities and its weaknesses. The team on their own write down onto post-it notes their ideas as before.

Step 5 – They place their post-it notes (or the facilitator) in turn onto the grid as shown in the diagram – strengths to strengths and weaknesses to weaknesses.

Step 6 – The team then consider the crossing points of the SWOT for example between Threats and Strengths below (top left box) and as shown in the diagram think of specific actions to use strengths to counter any threats. These are written onto post it notes as before and placed in turn into the grid.

Step 7 – The facilitator tidies up the board removing duplicates or clarifying actions that have been written down. The board actions are then agreed prioritized then transferred to a standard action plan template.

Example Swot Action Analysis

Here is an example taken from an early draft of a business plan to illustrate the completed board. From here the actions can be taken across to a standard action plan template and owners and timescales applied. Thus from an initial consideration of the external and internal environment we can quite quickly move to a position where we can see possible practical actions we can take to move the agenda forward.

Royston

• Objectivity – It is critical to remain objective at all times. Do not be tempted to respond to or defend anything said. The focus should be on listening, acknowledging, probing for understanding and root cause, and tracking.
• Confidentiality – Assure participants that their comments will be reported anonymously.
• Candor – Emphasize the need for an open and honest discussion. The goal is to uncover real concerns and recommend appropriate solutions.
• Participation – Everyone needs to be actively involved. A fast and steady pace, the use of brainstorming, and encouraging participants to contribute will all serve this purpose.
• Agenda – Move quickly through the discussion of implementation risks, but ask participants to raise issues and questions as needed. Focus the discussion on specific recommendations that address the implementation risks.
• Legitimacy – This session is designed to identify problems and develop potential solutions. The focus should be on idea creation, not criticism.
• Have Fun! – This is discussion a between and among participants, not just between them and the facilitator. Follow the agenda but keep the discussion informal.

Facilitator Do’s and Don’ts -

• Do express the objectives of the session.
• Do explain your role as facilitator.
• Do point out the time available.
• Do know something about the group before starting.
• Do encourage participation.
• Do use open-ended questions.
• Do thank individuals for their input.
• Do use flip-charts to record inputs, when possible.
• Do ask for clarification.
• Do gain some consensus after all ideas are offered.
• Do gain closure – may mean asking group to prioritize.
• Don’t evaluate input as good or bad.
• Don’t stop someone in the middle of their thought.
• Don’t argue or defend a point.
• Don’t try to respond during the brainstorming section – save it for Q&A.

Ways to increase group participation -

• Effective use of open-ended questions.
• Allow enough time for participants to think and respond.
• Acknowledge all responses.
• Let a participant finish speaking before moving on.
• Face the group and move about freely.
• Keep the discussion focused on the agenda.
• Make eye contact frequently, especially with those who seem disinterested, or those taking part in side conversations.
• Ask for clarification when a response is unclear. Examples: “Tell me more…” ” Can you rephrase that?”
• Keep on schedule.

Useful tips to keep the discussion moving:

• Thank you.
• Tell me more about what you said (or what you mean).
• Repeat that in a few words so I can capture your thought on the flip-chart.
• How do others of you feel about that?
• Let me see if I can repeat that back to you.
• Feel free to add as we go.

Special problems:

• Someone dominates – Look into eyes of other participants, say “That’s interesting, how do others feel about that?”
• Loss of control/off-subject – Stop the discussion, and say “It appears we may be getting off subject. Let me ask you about this….” and return to the issues on the agenda.
• Non-participants – Make eye contact. Encourage their participation, by saying, “We may not have given you an opportunity to say what’s on your mind…we’d appreciate your ideas too.
• Side conversations – Make eye contact, direct questions to them, or ask them politely to join the group so everyone will have the benefit of hearing all comments.
• Out of time – Say “We seem to be running out of time and we want to honor our time commitment. There have been lots of great questions and ideas coming out.” Then, either provide the phone numbers of presenter/facilitator and suggest people call with their thoughts, OR suggest they write down a few thoughts and leave them with you, OR offer a summary point or two and say that’s all the time we have today.
• Cold climate – Suggest an introductory activity. For example, if time permits, ask each person to introduce themselves and share one thing about themselves that another person couldn’t.

Objective setting is a vital part of appraising and managing employees. Both managers and subordinates should be aware of what the objectives are for the current period as well as be working on new draft objectives for the next period prior to discussing them during a future appraisal meeting – where objectives for the forthcoming period can be documented and agreed.

How to set objectives:

A Manager will have her own set of business objectives and it is the responsibilities of staff to support her in achieving these. Staff should make sure that their manager communicates the objectives to the team and from this they should then be able to define their own goals contributing towards the overall team’s success.

The first task is to identify the results that you as a staffer are responsible for achieving rather than the actual work activity leading to those results. Where possible attempt to quantify or include a definite assessment point like a sign-off when successful completion occurs.

The following are examples of possible required results:

• Project delivered on or under time and within budget
• The delivered signed of business case of the project
• Reduced operating costs of the department
• New sales at the required margin
• Reduced call stack on the service desk
• Improved service levels
• Positive feedback from customers
• Increased profit margin
• Reduced expenses

Then you will need to consider the key elements which show how the objectives will be achieved and what changes in behaviour or action is needed to deliver them. Try to ensure that the objectives represent clear business related targets that contribute to your organization’s success. Wherever possible the objectives should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. Qualitative measures are also good and achievement can be confirmed from interviewing customers for example or by discussing performance with peers. The important point is to come up with an approach that enables in a clear way to demonstrate that you have by your action achieved the set goals.

Sample Business Objectives at staff level:

• Ten new customers at an average contract value of will be signed in the next quarter
• Sales of $100,000 of extra service revenue in the financial year from additional requirements
• To reduce in the number of calls on the call queue outstanding by more than 5 days by 50% in three months.
• To respond to a request for change within 5 working days from receipt of documented change note.
• Increase the hit rate on customer enquiries to closed deal to 25% of all leads in one year.
• To score ‘satisfied’ to ‘very satisfied’ in all post project assessments in the year.
• To complete all invoicing to customers by 5 days after the month end close.

Royston

I have loaded a simple contract template for consulting services – mostly clients will have a template already in hand from procurement. If you do not have anything you may find this one useful. It is pretty basic but contains the essential elements. I’ll post an affiliate version is there is any demand.

draft_consult_contract

1. Purpose
The requirement for the quality plan are driven by the need to achieve customer satisfaction by meeting or exceeding customer requirements by the application of a quality system and includes the continuous improvement and the prevention of non-conformity in delivered services of BizFace Management.
1.1. Scope
The scope is defined as the Consulting and Research business activities of BizFace Management Limited.
1.2. References
References used are:
[ref 1] ISO9001:2000 Quality Management Systems Requirements
[ref 2] ISO9004:2000 Guidelines for Performance Improvement
[ref 3] ISO9000:2000 Fundamentals and Vocabulary
[ref 4] ISO9000:2000 Quality Management Systems Concepts and Vocabulary
Definitions
The concept of the standard is demonstrated by:
• Defining the management requirement
• Determining and applying the necessary resource management
• Establishing and implementing processes for service realisation
• Measuring and analysing results and implementing improvements as a result of feedback.
• Review activities relating to initiating improvements and authorising changes.
The role of customers is to provide demand which is converted into service output via BizFace internal process activities. These outputs are evaluated by customers in terms of customer satisfaction and compliance to the demanded services. Information gained from the monitoring of outputs is used to improve process performance.
1.3. Quality Assurance Policy
BizFace Management’s quality assurance policy is based on principles and values provided for in the company mission, strategy and goals. The Quality Management System (QMS) creation is a major strategic direction of our business activities and is regarded as a tool enabling the creation and management of effective business processes.

Article-Quality-Plan

The process involves a series of workshops where knowledge and ideas are generated, gaps in understanding acknowledged and actions agreed to acquire the missing information for the following workshop. A marketing template is completed including action plans with clear responsibilities and dates for completion. The process also includes agreement on priorities and specific measurements for success.

At all times the focus is on what we need to understand to increase our sales revenue. Weaknesses and threats must be acknowledged and counter-attacks created. Apparent criticisms should not be taken personally (easier said than done, but important to be aware of). Similarly, criticisms should not be made at a personal level; we are all working toward the same goals. We need to be honest about our individual, group, and organizational strengths and weaknesses.

For agreed cases we will try to truncate the process, to focus on immediate market planning concerns. Generally there is a need to focus on key potential unique selling points and try to get a clear understanding of how to emphasise these and raise demand, exploit strengths and counter-attack the competition.

The workshop(s) will ideally cover:

1. A clear understanding of our internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and threats. This will include assessment of knowledge, skills and capabilities, internal influencing factors, strategic intent, alliances and current/past client experience.
2. The specific market for our type of products; potential by segment.
3. The general and specific competition for our product range; current and future; their strengths and weaknesses; where are they going and why; how do we compare?
4. Future scenario focus – what are the implications of possible market/competitor/client changes? What are the risks of our taking specific approaches? What contingencies should we set in place?

The devil in the detail – Therefore… exactly what is our value proposition? Exactly how do we communicate this? To whom? Through which medium?

Market Planning Process - Workshop Scheme

This post includes a presentation on how a Brown Paper workshop can be run – it explains what a Brown Paper is and how to ‘create’ one in a workshop setting.

General Guidelines for a Brown Paper Exercise

• In identifying which processes to ‘brown-paper’ consider what information you would like to get from the exercise as well as clearly defining the beginning and ending points of the process – the scope of the activity is important.
• Start at a suitable level – usually departmental to start with. Gain experience before mapping going to larger scale.
• Select those people who know the most about the process – the process-owners or the people who do the work day-to-day. These people are the true experts in how the job is done and through the thousands of everyday interactions and activities they do have a deep knowledge of what works and where the problems are.
• Also include those people who are key interface points into and out of the process the ‘customers’ of what the process delivers or suppliers of what the process consumes.
• The accuracy of the BP must be verified, both by the owners of the process and those impacted by the process.
• Bringing in more people from the organization also increases awareness of the BP activities, builds buy-in, and begins to develop better interdepartmental knowledge and teamwork.
• Evaluating the BP begins by looking at the process flow as a whole & studying individual components. Asking what this process component achieves and whether it adds value to the sum total.
• At this point we can now make judgments and suggest ideas on the strengths and opportunities inherent the process. What is this BP telling us about how we carry out this task?

The BP also serves as a presentation tool to convey findings, strengths, opportunities, and ideas for process improvements. It is a wonderful tool to explain what is going on in an organisation and even better when explained by those whose day-to-day job is to carry out the process.