How executive scoping is killing projects

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How executive scoping is killing projects, and what to do instead

Reading time: 4 minutes

Have you ever asked what the success of a project looks like, and got a list of features in return?

You're not alone.

Your organization has fallen into the trap of executive scoping.

Executive scoping is when the sponsor of a project confuses project scope & benefits.

They have the best intention, but it's the project management version of micromanagement. It kills teams, and it kills projects.

Let's zoom out before we dive in

The start of a project is called the initiation phase. The deliverable of the project initiation is a project charter. In the charter, the executive sponsor:

• Aligns the stakeholders

• Provides a project mandate

• Sets constraints & boundaries

• Describes the projects' benefits

• Identifies measurable criteria for success

Today, we're zooming in on the last two: benefits & measurable criteria.

Let's establish our baseline

Before we dive into benefits, we need to define two key elements:

1. Business value

2. Measurable criteria

1. Business value

Many project teams and organizations think a project is successful if it delivers the agreed scope on time and within budget. 

While that's a great start, these are outputs.

A healthy business makes a profit through value creation. Delivering features does not equal value creation.

We need to look beyond output, and define the value we're seeking to create.

2. Measurable criteria

The second part of the equation is measurable. "Moving the needle" sounds great in the boardroom, but it's subjective. You can't say if it's done or not. We need to get specific and know what to do, and by when.

That's why the success criteria for a project should be SMART.

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Time-bound

Project benefits

With success defined as creating business value, and by making sure our criteria can be measured, we can move on to defining benefits.

Keep in mind: a project goal is not to create deliverables.

A project goal is to achieve business goals.

A benefit is a measurable improvement or advantage, as perceived by the sponsor and stakeholders.

In short:

• Output: work done

• Outcome: result of the output

• Benefit: the advantage or improvement

As an example:

1. A good newsletter is an output

2. Good content gets shared, which is an outcome

3. The sharing grows the subscriber base, which is a benefit

Executive scoping

Defining project success as "a bigger, brighter checkout button" is not good enough.

But we've all seen it.

Whether a sponsor is a domain expert or a generalist, they should set the direction and get out of the way. The project team's job is to find out how to get there.

Instead, the sponsor should describe that she wants to increase the conversion rate. And not just the conversion rate, but increase the conversion rate from 2.8% to 3.2%. 

A project team can then do their research and conclude that one of many ways to do that is to make the checkout button yellow and 27px high. That's an output, and a much better one than "a bigger, brighter checkout button". 

Let's say the conversion increases to 3.0%.

If the project charter said "a bigger, brighter checkout button", that would be a success. But because we properly defined the benefit, we know we can't close the project yet, without any subjective discussion.

Summary

Successful projects start with well-defined benefits and measurable criteria for success.

These are described by the executive sponsor in the project charter, and are:

• A measurable improvement

• Driven by business value

• Defined SMART

Next time you're part of a project where the benefits are actually a list of features, don't stay quiet. Speak up, discuss it with your team, and get your sponsor on board with real benefits instead.

Let me know how it went!

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That's it for this week - until next Tuesday!

Cheers,Jasper