Session 01: Project Kick Off
Hi there! Welcome to this inaugural session for the CQ Vision, Mission, and Values project! By the end of this session I aim to identify the goal, objectives, and any tools that may be required for this project.
To begin, I’m going to explain how this project came about in three steps: defining the need and proposed solution. This is based off unofficial project management guidelines (which will become official in the near future).
Project Need and Solution
While working on the retrospective for the first phase of the Online Notes project, it was revealed that the project would have benefited from working out the need, obstacle, and solution first (which was not done) and specifically how to tie these to the values and/or (the non-existent) vision and mission statements. The reason this is important is to ensure projects support the “Big Picture.”
Currently, there is no clear definition of the “Big Picture.” Without it, there is an increased risk of scope creep, project bloat, wasted effort, and perhaps the production of something that ultimately goes against the “Big Picture.”
The proposed solution is to define the “Big Picture” by creating a Vision statement, Mission statement, and Value statements for Cryptiquest, LLC. Cryptiquest already has established “Company Goals” which may serve as the values.
The Goal
So the solution sounds pretty straightforward: create a vision statement, mission statement, and value statements. But I don’t think that’s accurate or it might turn out that I only need one of those things or a completely different product altogether. That’s just the proposed solution.
Let me try a stab at the goal:
Goal: Define the big picture for which Cryptiquest is striving in a way that ensures support from projects moving forward.
Okay. That honestly took a couple tries but I think this is a nicely specific goal. Perhaps the phrasing is a bit passive but that should work for this project (I hope).
Objectives
Okay, so we have a need, a proposed solution, and a goal. Let’s try to suss out the scope of this project via objectives. Let’s start with the obvious: the goal.
The goal is broken into two parts: the product (a definition of Cryptiquest’s big picture [paraphrased]) and the conditions of that product (must be presented in a way to easily justify projects which support the product [again, paraphrased]). I’ll take a crack at converting these into goals.
Objective 1: The project will define the change Cryptiquest aims to bring about in the world.
Objective 2: The project will present the definition in such a way that parts of it can be easily referred to when creating projects.
Okay. That seems to add up. The first objective might be too grandiose but I don’t hate it. The second one will be tough to measure successfully since it has that “easily” qualifier. It might be just as good without it.
In previous projects I’ve referenced the current Cryptiquest goals (values) when identifying objectives which has been helpful. But those were ways to ensure the project was successful instead of whether or not the project was in scope. It’s a matter of defining need vs. defining scope. Perhaps the second objective should reflect this.
Objective 2: The project will present the definition in such a way that parts of it can be referred to when establishing the needs of projects.
Objective 3: The project will present the definition in such a way that parts of it can be referred to when measuring the success of projects.
I think that covers it. It does not look as though any tools will be required. Regarding the proposed solution (create a vision statement, mission statement, and value statements) I think the solution can be structured as the following:
- Vision Statement (the change Cryptiquest wants to bring about)
- Mission Statement (the core strategy Cryptiquest will use to achieve the vision)
- Values (definitions of the elements outlined in the vision and mission statements)
This approach, in theory, should cover all objectives since the vision statement answers objective 1 and the values will cover objectives 2 and 3 (I think). But that’s an analysis that I’ll save for a future session. The next session should focus on deliverables. That should be fun. We’ll see!