Project Initiation and Project Charter

1. Initiating process group, and project scope management key terms
   1. Project charter
   2. Constraints and assumptions
   3. Identify stakeholders
   4. Collect requirements
   5. Project scope statement
   6. Scope management plan
   7. Define scope
   8. Decomposition process
   9. Work breakdown structure
   10. WBS dictionary
   11. Some common reasons why projects fail
       1. Misunderstood customer needs – requirements
       2. Inappropriate budgets or schedules
       3. Over extended burned out project team members
       4. Results that fall short of current quality or tech standards
       5. Projects that don’t fit with organizations strategic goals
       6. Process Groups – Initiating
          1. Project selection methods – Usually selected by measuring their value to the project owner
          2. Internal business needs
          3. External influences:
             1. Problems
             2. Opportunities
             3. Business requirements
2. Formal decision models
   1. Benefit Measurement (comparative)
      1. Murder board
      2. Peer reviews
      3. Cost/benefit
      4. Scoring model
      5. Economic model
      6. Constrained optimization (mathematical programming algorithms)
         1. Linear
         2. Non-linear
         3. Integer
         4. Dynamic
         5. Multi-objective
3. Develop Project Charter
   1. Developing a document that formally authorizes a project or project phase.
   2. Documenting initial stakeholder requirements
   3. Identify stakeholders – Identifying and documenting relevant information for all people or organizations impacted by the project.
   4. Inputs
      1. Project statement of work
      2. Business case
      3. Contract (when applicable)
      4. Enterprise environmental factors (EEF)
      5. Organization Process Assets (OPA)
      6. Tools and techniques – Expert judgment
      7. Outputs – Project Charter
      8. The project charter
         1. Projects are authorized by someone external to the project
            1. Sponsor
            2. PMO
            3. Steering committee
            4. Project is issued/signed by: Sponsor, initiator, Mgt
               1. At a level of authority to be able to fund the project
               2. This signatures authorizes the project
               3. Identifies the PM as early as possible
                  1. Recommended that PM participate in charter development; may be delegated to PM.
                  2. PM should always be assigned prior to planning
               4. Charter provides authority to PM to use resources
               5. Documents: Initial project requirementsthat will satisfy the stakeholders needs and expectations
         2. Develop Charter Inputs
            1. Statement of work
               1. Narrative description of product or services
                  1. Business need
                  2. Product scope description
                     1. Product characteristics
                     2. Relationship to business need
                     3. Strategic plan – should support strategic goals
               2. Business case to justify project
                  1. Market demands
                  2. Organizational need
                  3. Customer request
                  4. Technical advance
                  5. Legal
                  6. Social
                  7. Ecological
               3. Contract (external customer)
               4. Enterprise environmental factors
                  1. Marketplace conditions
                  2. Gov’t or industry standards
                  3. Organizational infrastructure
               5. Organizational Process assets
                  1. Org standards
                  2. Processes and policies
                  3. Template (project charter)
                  4. Historical information
                  5. Lessons learned knowledge base
               6. Tools and techniques
                  1. Expert judgment – used throughout the project process
                     1. Provided by any group or individual with specialized knowledge or training
                     2. Internal experts: SME’s, PMO, Stakeholders,
                     3. External Experts: Consultants, Professional associations, Industry groups
                     4. Used to assess the inputs used to develop the project charter and address technical and management details during the process
               7. Outputs – what should be included
                  1. Project purpose/description
                  2. Business need
                  3. Project justification
                  4. PM assigned and level of authority defined
                  5. Summary budget, milestones, hi-level risks
                  6. Resources pre-assigned
                  7. Project objectives/success criteria/sign-off
                  8. High-level requirements
                  9. Product scope description = deliverables and business need they will satisfy

10.  Signed and authorized by project sponsor/initiator/senior management

Next Up: Project Scope

The following is a questionnaire can be used to help determine your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Unique Selling Proposition Questionnaire

Your Industry:  (First, let’s take a look at your industry/market as a whole…)

How would you describe your industry?

Describe how your industry has changed in the last 5 years…
Describe the changes you expect to see in the next 12 months in your industry…

Describe the changes you expect to see in the next 5 years in your industry…

Describe the perceived standards of customer service in your industry…

Describe the perceived standards of technology in your industry…

Describe the perceived standards of product quality in your industry…

Describe the perceived standards in sales & marketing in your industry…

How does your business compare to these industry standards?

• Customer Service?

• Technology?

• Product Quality?

• Sales & Marketing?

What are businesses in your industry required to guarantee?

Your Market Place…

Describe the average customer in your industry (not necessarily the same as your customers).

What is most important to an average customer in your market place (scale 1-10 with 10 highest)?

Quality                                                            Speed of service

Price                                                               Customer Service

Reliability                                                        Consistency

Safety                                                             Back up Service

Convenience                                                   Image

Guarantee                                                      Other

Is the current market place growing or diminishing? Please explain.

Is your typical customer different from the generic industry customer you have described? How?

Customer Motives and Frustrations…

Customers “hire” an industry’s products and services to get specific “jobs” done.  These jobs can be:

– Functional: “Help me get a job done” e.g. buy a lawnmower to mow my lawn, see a doctor to get over an illness.

– Social: “Help me to get others to feel a certain way about me” e.g. buy a Mercedes to let people know my status, install a high end kitchen to impress my friends.

– Emotional: “Help me feel a certain way about myself” e.g. go to a day spa to get a massage, enroll in Weightwatchers to lose weight.

What are the “jobs” that customers hire your industry’s product/service to get done?

What are the 3 major benefits of buying your industry’s product or service?

What frustrations do customers experience when trying to find your industry’s product or service?

What frustrations do customers experience when making a decision whether or not to buy your industry’s product or service?

What frustrations do customers experience when they go to buy your industry’s product or service?

What frustrations do customers experience when receiving, picking up or installing your industry’s product or service?

What frustrations do customers experience when using your industry’s product or service?

What frustrations do customers experience after they’ve bought your industry’s product or service?

If you were a customer, why would you dislike buying from companies like yours?

Describe the sort of customers who dislike buying from companies like yours… and tell us why?

Describe the sort of customers who love buying from companies like yours… and tell us why?

If you could easily overcome any 2 of your customers’ frustrations, what would they be and how would you overcome them?

Your Competitors

List your 3 biggest competitors…

What do they do well?

What do they do poorly?

What would the average person say about each of these competitors?

What is ‘unique’ about them?

What ‘guarantees’ do they have in place?

How are these guarantees promoted?

How ‘genuine’ are these guarantees?

What can’t each of your competitors guarantee?

What can they do that you can’t?

Where are they located geographically in comparison to you?

Your Customer’s Thoughts…

What are 3 things your best customers say about you?

What are 3 things your worst customers say about you?

What would an average customer have said about you 12 months ago?

How would their opinion differ now?

Your Specific Niche…

Describe your current “A” customers…the customers who are wildly happy with you and who are most likely to go out and talk about you with others.

Describe your ideal future customer….

Rank the priorities, on a scale of 1-10 (10 is highest), of your ideal future customer in the same way as you ranked the priorities of your generic industry customer?  Pay particular attention to the differences, if any…

Quality                    ____                                 Speed of service                    ____

Price                       ____                                 Customer Service                   ____

Reliability                ____                                 Consistency                           ____

Safety                     ____                                 Back up Service                     ____

Convenience           ____                                 Image                                    ____

Guarantee              ____                                 Other

What are 4 reasons your customers come to you rather than to your competitors?  (This question is particularly important, so give it some real thought.)

1.

2.

3.

4.

In what 4 ways do you believe you are genuinely different from your competitors?

1.

2.

3.

4.

Below are some attributes valued by customers in any industry. Place your competitors on lines where they excel in providing these attributes.  For example, Volvo is known for safety, Porsche for speed etc…

1. Quality                    _________________
2. Speed of service     _________________
3. Price                       _________________
4. Customer Service    _________________
5. Reliability                _________________
6. Consistency            _________________
7. Safety                     _________________
8. Back up Service      _________________
9. Convenience           _________________
10. Image                     _________________
11. Guarantee              _________________
12. Other                      _________________

Based on the above, which niche do you believe you fill?

What can you do that no one else can?

In the 1900’s Claude Hopkins, the advertising guru, made the beer company Schlitz the market leader with one ad… all he did was describe the process the company went through when making the beer. Please describe in detail how your product is made and delivered…

Write down exactly what you discuss with a customer writing this info down word for word.

What are the 5 things about your product or service that you take for granted, that your customers don’t know about?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

If you have one, what is your current marketing positioning statement / tag line? (i.e. “Things go better with Coke”, “Just do it”)

How is this different from your past attempts?

How do customers react to your current positioning statement?

What have you learned from the changes that you have made to your positioning statement to date?

What is your current written guarantee?

How is this different from your guarantees of the past?

How do customers react to your current guarantee?

What have you learned from the changes that you have made to your guarantee to date?

Your Ideal Scenario…

List 3 things that you cannot confidently guarantee today, that you would love to be able to guarantee…

1.

2.

3.

What is the one thing that if you could guarantee it, would make you the market leader?  (For example, a gas station that guarantees to sell you a winning lottery ticket every time)…

In an ideal world, what would you like your customers to see as the main point of difference between you and your competitors?

If there was one phrase your customers and prospects could use to describe you as you are today, it would be…

‘Oh, you’re the guys who…’

If there was one phrase your customers and prospects could use to describe you in your ideal world it would be…

‘Oh, you’re the guys who…

Think of 3 industries as far removed from yours as you can, then from each one, ‘steal’ an idea that could give your business a real point of difference (for example KFC – Finger licking good.)

Industry 1…

Industry 2…

Industry 3…

What You CAN Guarantee…

What 5 things will relieve your customer’s frustrations that you can guarantee and deliver 100% of the time right now?

What 3 additional things will you be able to fully guarantee within the next 3 months?

YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION –

Now that you’ve carefully analyzed your industry, competitors, customers and your business, craft a unique selling proposition by asking yourself 7 questions:

1. Who?  Who are you (company’s name)?

1. What?  What business are you in?

1. For Whom?  What people do you serve?

1. What are their Wants and Needs?  What are the special wants and needs of the people you serve?  What “job” are your customers really buying your product/service for?

1. Against Whom?  With whom are you competing?

1. What’s Different?  What makes you different than these competitors?

1. So?  What’s the benefit?  What unique benefit does a client derive from your product or service?

Put this all together into a short positioning statement.  Example:

“Yellowbird Marketing Solutions helps businesses create and deliver their unique message to their unique marketplace of qualified buying customers. We do this by helping them to create their message and then develop the tools, from online to offline including web sites, blogs, email marketing, search engine marketing (ppc ads, social media site design, print including fliers, brochures and print advertising, in which to deliver it.”

Next Up: Finding Your Target Audience

Why you and not the other guys?

Why you and not the other guys?

Creating and sustaining your unique selling proposition

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

A competitive advantage exists when the firm is able to deliver the same benefits as competitors but at a lower cost (cost advantage), or deliver benefits that exceed those of competing products (differentiation advantage). Thus, a competitive advantage enables the firm to create superior value for its customers and superior profits for itself.

How does marketing fit in?

Traditional marketing theory talks about the “Four P’s”: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. All marketing campaigns use a mix of these ingredients to build customer awareness and loyalty. Differentiation is a key goal of any good marketing program. The Four P’s are sometimes referred to as the Four C’s: Capability, Convenience, Cost and Communication.

How do we use this framework to differentiate our product or service?

Your USP = your brand

There is no one approach to creating a USP, but what you choose to do must be honest. Start by analyzing your personality, capabilities and goals. Do not create a USP based on superior service if you are not 100% committed to that in your DNA. Do not create a USP based on low price unless you can sustain those prices through low-cost sourcing or low overhead.

Be unique through personality

No one can duplicate you.

Be unique by combining old ideas

You don’t have to invent something new, but you can find a new spin on a familiar product or service.

Be unique by narrowing your focus

Choose your target audience and cater to them exclusively

Be clear, concise and repetitive

Simple messages resonate because they are quickly understood in the clutter of daily life. Consumers do not have more than a few seconds to decide whether your message is important to them. A great USP can often become a great slogan.

Examples:

✤ The Greatest Show on Earth

✤ Is it live, or is it Memorex?

✤ When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight

✤ The ultimate driving machine

✤ We’re Number Two. We Try Harder.

Next Up: Unique Selling Proposition

It has been awhile since I last posted. Much has happened. Yellowbird Marketing has shrunk in size. Mike and I have changed directions, now pursuing other avenues of enrichment. I have returned to continuing my career as a professional Project Manager. Mike has gone back to managing software installation. I am going to start adding more to my blog, kind of a new years resolution for 2013. I plan to discuss mostly project management and business system analysis topics, throwing in the occasional personal and political/economic items of interest. I currently work as a contract project manager for RCG Global Services and I’m assigned to Abbott Labs managing two web site projects. This contract ends this month. More later.