From the course: Business Analysis Foundations

Project planning: Vision

From the course: Business Analysis Foundations

Project planning: Vision

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- When we use the word vision, we might roll our eyes. Vision gets used in a lot of corporate trainings and company culture messaging, but here in project planning, vision should be thought of as more of a thesis statement or a goal. The project vision is an idealistic view of the desired outcome. It helps us stay on task and remain oriented to the business value that's driving the project in the first place. Even with all the detail that's included in the business case, it's important for the entire team to have a vision of why the project is being done. This includes what the result will look like to those who benefit from the result. Everyone, including the sponsor, project manager, business analyst, and key stakeholders need to participate in building the consensus of that shared vision. The project charter, which formally initiates the project, contains the project vision. The vision contains the why, what, who, when, where, and how of the project. Let's start with the why. This is the vision, mission, and goals that are to be delivered by the result. Then there's the what. Objectives identified in the business case, initial boundaries for scope, and maybe what is not included. As far as the who goes, you identify the key stakeholders, both internally and externally, who will play key roles in the project. The when is fairly simple. It's the expected start and end dates. This is especially important when a final date is imposed or a time is of the essence, or window of opportunity constraint exists. Then there's the where. The work or deployment sites of the final solution. The how is the collection of various approaches, including predictive or adaptive methods that are recommended. These will vary depending on the type of the project. Okay, so now you have to put this together, but a great way to do this is to use the elevator pitch strategy. You should be able to state your vision in one or two statements. It has to be short. You could actually think of it as a tweet. The idea is to concisely explain what the project is and why, and this vision should be aligned across the teams. Everyone should be able to quickly and easily explain why the project exists and what it's going to do. It's critical that the vision be reviewed frequently to make sure that the shared vision is still understood by all. The vision should be concise and easy to understand. It should help inspire the team members to achieve the desired goal.

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