The Perils of Project Initiation

The Perils of Project Initiation Mark Mullaly, PMP January 16, 2002

Project Management in Practice

For many of us, as we return to the reality of life without egg nog and face the start of a new year and a new project, a question keeps resonating in our heads: "Just what were they thinking when they were defining this project?"

A simple question, but all too often a disturbingly familiar one. Disturbing because it comes with a pile of baggage the size of a freight car. If "they" were thinking of the project, chances are very good that "we" weren't. This means that we had little to no input into what the project should be, how big it is, what its outcomes are or how we should get there from here. It got handed to us--objective, budget, deadline and all. Our job is simply to manage it.

Unfortunately, what I have defined here characterizes how most projects get initiated in most companies. Equally unfortunate, what passes for project definition tends to be a management team sitting in a conference room at budget time with a wish list of projects, assigning budgets to them because they're being presented to senior management tomorrow for approval.