10.5 End-State Visions

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This is sometimes referred to as the “to be” state of the project. This is where many Project Managers spike themselves by painting the rosy cheeks, blue skies, and happiness vision that is almost never the case. When defining the end state, it is important to keep the descriptions at a process level. Taking it to any other level invites trouble. Process descriptions are less colorful, but they keep the focus on what the process will be and not what expectations should come of that. This is an important distinction, because many things are often attributed to items in a project that are next to impossible to deliver. Focusing on process keeps things at a level that can be documented, observed, measured, and communicated.

It is impossible to predict whether implementing new software will increase profits or create customer satisfaction. It is possible to say that implementing new software will change Process A from this current state to that found in Process B. The effect of the change can be measured if the old process is baselined before the project starts. The new process can be compared to the baseline, and the differences can be used to make inferences about the performance of the product. Making comparisons in any other fashion is just not an apples-to-apples comparison and is meaningless.

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