Project Management Tips

Specifications and Documentation

Proper documentation is a key stepping stone to project management

The director of a Fortune 100 company wants to develop a marketing campaign and launch in three months. The project deadline is critical -- the client's marketing campaign will support a new product release.

The production teams are assembled and instructed about the importance of this particular job. Everyone is excited about it and looking forward to starting something new. There are discovery meetings to flush out the project details, and essentials are outlined and recorded. The client communicates just what she thinks the project is about, and people write notes conscientiously while she speaks. Each team goes off to implement their piece of the puzzle, and time and money are spent moving the project forward.

Four weeks go by in this fictitious story and the marketing director sits down with the client. The project progress is discussed and everyone seems happy with its movement. The director unveils the designs and work done-to-date and the client goes silent. Stress appears on her face, as she realizes the vendor has gone down a wrong path. At that moment she realizes the vendor does not have a firm understanding of what the campaign is really about. So client and vendor sit in silence as the client ponders what to say. This story repeats itself over and over with different people and industries.

Talking is Just the First Level of Communication

Communication breakdown stems from the same mistaken assumption: that people actually think other people understand what they are saying. It's like the game "telephone" - ask each person in the chain about what was said by so-and-so, and you'll receive a distinct and separate version from each person. When you sit down in a meeting to discuss the plans and ideas for your project, many times it isn't enough to just talk about it. Talking is just one level of communication, and unfortunately, just the first step. Talking alone will lead to communication breakdown.

By now the hands would be up with people shouting the answer, the path away from communication breakdown: "it must be writing it down." To which I would say, close but no cigar. Writing by itself is the next step, but not the final step. Even when each person writes down their notes, if we came by and examined what they wrote, much of it would be slanted towards what they thought was important for them. The communication would probably be lost for someone with a different focus in the project or job.

Write a Project Plan or Specification

The secret to successful communication is writing down a project plan for others. It is concentrating, developing and refining a document for all team members to read and review. That is the essential nature of a specification or project document. It is a document that leads the team to a total and true understanding of the project from every perspective. Once this document is reviewed and approved, your probability of success goes way up.

A specification document isn't a way to raise costs, waste time, or use up resources. Rather, it is an insurance policy against making fatal project errors. So the next time your project manager or vendor asks if they can put together a project plan, think about it and realize, they are making the right choices for your next project.



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