2.2. Defining the Project

As Yogi Berra once said, "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." Projects usually get the go-ahead for good reasons, but the motivation for a project may be barely sketched out when the project begins. Before you can work out the details of how you'll perform the project, you need to identify what the project is supposed to achieve.

Dr. Joseph M. Juran's definition of a project is a problem scheduled for solution, so identifying the problem to solve is usually the first step. A project mission presents the problem in a way that makes people care. Because most problems have more than one possible solution, the project strategy outlines the solution you've picked. From there, you identify all the project's goals, the results it'll deliver, and the assumptions you've made in preparing the plan.