Project Goals and Responsibilities

The folowing is coming from a paragraph in Chapter 3 of Analyzing Requirements and Defining Solution Architectures.

Specific responsibilities must be carried out and specific goals must be met in order for any project to be successful. These responsibilities and goals serve to provide continual direction for all the team members. Key project responsibilities and goals include the following:

• Customer satisfaction Projects must meet the needs of their customers and users in order to be successful. It is possible to meet budget and time goals but still be unsuccessful because customer needs have not been met.


• Delivery within project constraints Most projects measure success using "on time, on budget" metrics.


• Delivery to specifications based on user requirements The Functional Specification describes in detail the deliverable to be provided by the team to the customer. This specification represents an agreement between the team and the customer as to what will be built, and constitutes the basis for "Doing what we say we will do."


• Release after identifying and addressing all issues All software is delivered with defects. The team's goal is to ensure that those defects are identified and addressed before the product is released. Addressing defects can involve everything from fixing the defect in question to documenting work-around solutions. Delivering a known defect that has been addressed along with a work-around solution is preferable to delivering a product containing unidentified defects that may "surprise" the team and the customer later.


• Enhanced user performance For a product to be successful, it must enhance the way that users work. Delivering a product that is rich in features and content but can't be used is considered a failure.


• Smooth deployment and ongoing management The effectiveness of deployment directly affects the perceived quality of a product. For example, a faulty installation program may imply to users that the installed application is similarly faulty. The team must do more than simply deploy the product; it must deploy smoothly and then support and manage the product.

NOTE

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Many factors can affect a project, some of which will constrain it. When the project team focuses on meeting the agreed-upon goals of the project and delivering the product on time, it ensures that the organization receives the right Return on Investment (ROI), which is the right product for the right price.

Goals and corresponding team roles:

Customer satisfaction by Product Management
Delivery within project constraints by Program Management
Delivery to product specifications by Development
Release after identifying and addressing all issues by Testing
Enhanced user performance by User Education
Smooth deployment and ongoing management by Logistics Management