Every project manager has experienced a project or two going wrong, often with quite costly consequences. There can be many reasons why a plan goes awry, but you can easily minimise the risk by carrying out a thorough preliminary study.
You know the examples from the public sector. Major projects are launched with great fanfare, only to drag on or be scrapped without a resolution. The same applies to the private sector. Here, projects fail just as often with equally large financial costs.
But why does a project fail?
This usually happens because the majority of the project's fundamental decisions are made before the contract is signed. In other words, before experience can be gained and testing can occur. Before it is known if the collaboration is working. Yes, even before it is known if the solution will work in practice.
The preliminary project ensures a sound, cost-effective solution
When a project goes wrong, it can often be traced back to how the project was defined. Has a clear end goal been set? Have expectations been aligned in terms of quality, time and cost? And is the solution to the problem at hand actually the right one?
With a pilot project, you can test your solution model and see if it works. You also gain concrete knowledge about the project's expected scope without it costing you a fortune.
Because the preliminary project is small-scale, it is easy to make changes, test and learn before you go all-in and start the main project. You will counter technical and competence issues and uncover unforeseen obstacles before they develop into costly anchors.
With the results from the preliminary project in hand, it is therefore much easier to define the full project, both in terms of actual solution specifications, technology alignment, and the expected resource consumption.
The pre-project therefore not only makes the project more cost-effective, it also provides a far better end product.
A common guideline maintains focus
Once you have chosen a solution model and started the major project, everyday life kicks in. It can be tempting to fall back to ”this is how we did it last time” or ”it's easier to produce this way”, but this is precisely where things often go wrong.
Therefore, it is good to have completed a pilot project.
When the actual project gets underway, and things suddenly go off the rails, you can go back and find the reasons behind your decisions.
Bearing in mind the pre-project's conclusions, you can therefore ask: ”It was decided that we should do it like this, because so-and-so – is there a good reason to change it?”
This way, the preliminary project becomes a common guideline that all stakeholders can refer back to when the actual project gets underway. It will be a guide that helps to maintain focus on the optimal solution, and a concept you can refer back to when you need to make ongoing decisions about quality, functionality, and workflow.
Test collaboration
A good project is fundamentally about good collaboration. If the project isn't well-managed, it leads to problems and a bad atmosphere. Conversely, if the collaboration doesn't work, problems arise, and the project fails.
The preliminary project is, of course, primarily a technical test, but it is also a test of collaboration; an opportunity to gauge each other's capabilities, without either party being committed to a long contract.
When testing collaboration in a pre-project, you don't just gain insight into how you and your supplier communicate best. You also learn how you can best leverage each other's competencies.
A project is most successful when you and your supplier manage to complement each other and contribute different professional insights.
