4. Determine Required Project Results

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What you need to accomplish or deliver in order to make good on the project's goals and objectives will make up the required project results.

ou're ready to list the requirements of your project when you have completed the project definition with fully-described goal, objectives, boundaries and constraints -- and after you have obtained complete buy-in from sponsor, customers, and other stakeholders.

Translate the project scope definition into requirements. Start with the list of objectives and, for each one, create a list of project results that satisfy that objective.  This is simply a list, as detailed as possible, that describe conditions or deliverables that are needed to meet the objectives. The items  should represent actions of one kind or another.  A required project result should be stated as a condition that has already been met -- for example, all employees trained, documentation delivered, fully-assembled widget or framing completed. 

Organize the requirements into logical groups or phases. These groups will be used in defining the workload.  Each group or phase will become a work package that will be further broken down into tasks for fulfilling the requirements or producing the deliverables for that work package. For example, in a new home project you might have the following requirements:

- Site prepared
- Foundation completed
- Framing completed
- Roofing completed
- Windows and doors installed
- Electrical roughed in
- Plumbing roughed in
- Heating & cooling ductwork installed
- etc. - For a complete list try: How Stuff Works

These groups are not the same thing and not as detailed as tasks.  A task grouping could be "doors and windows installed".  The tasks associated with the grouping will include individual tasks for each door or window and will be defined in the next step.

Get stakeholder agreement on the required project results. This is a critical planning step that should be done carefully and deliberately. Failure to get consensus could mean there are errors in the plan and errors that occur here will be compounded as the project moves forward and will be difficult to correct once things have been underway for awhile.

When you've finished listing requirements for the project you're ready to create the work breakdown structure and work packages , and start building your task list.

Next in the series: Defining the Workload

- Jake Alexander