In general, before defining a project, specifying what it should accomplish might help. But, this is not an easy task and things should not be taken for granted that everything is clear.
A project is the need to achieve something such as a new product, service or prototype, or the consequence of the need to achieve something.
Something has to happen to trigger a need, for example, a cause-effect situation, a change request for something or an action that causes some changes.
Once the need is recognized, it must be clearly articulated. This entails in-depth scrutiny of the recognized need. Articulating the need has a practical side too, that is, it serves as the basis for the development of requirements by stipulating in concrete terms what has to be done to achieve it.
After the need has been carefully defined, it's possible to use it as the basis for developing a project plan. This is done by formulating the need as functional requirements, that is, the characteristics of the deliverable in ordinary non-technical language, i.e., what emerges from the project.
While functional requirements describe what has to be done, technical requirements are designed for the technical staff offer project staff guidance on what they should be doing on the project.
Once the functional and technical requirements have been clearly defined, that is, what and how to do things, there is still the need to know how long will it take to realize the project and how much will it cost. These three aspects in project management are the scope, time and budget, and are known as the triple constraint triangle. The scope is what to be achieved in terms of expectations, time is the duration of the project and it is an estimate, and budget is the cost of the project and it's also an estimate. Balancing these three aspects can impact the quality, results, cost and/or duration of the project.
Once the need is recognized, it must be clearly articulated. This entails in-depth scrutiny of the recognized need. Articulating the need has a practical side too, that is, it serves as the basis for the development of requirements by stipulating in concrete terms what has to be done to achieve it.
After the need has been carefully defined, it's possible to use it as the basis for developing a project plan. This is done by formulating the need as functional requirements, that is, the characteristics of the deliverable in ordinary non-technical language, i.e., what emerges from the project.
While functional requirements describe what has to be done, technical requirements are designed for the technical staff offer project staff guidance on what they should be doing on the project.
Once the functional and technical requirements have been clearly defined, that is, what and how to do things, there is still the need to know how long will it take to realize the project and how much will it cost. These three aspects in project management are the scope, time and budget, and are known as the triple constraint triangle. The scope is what to be achieved in terms of expectations, time is the duration of the project and it is an estimate, and budget is the cost of the project and it's also an estimate. Balancing these three aspects can impact the quality, results, cost and/or duration of the project.