Keeping Track of the Purpose

Once you have established the purpose, you also need to keep the project aimed toward it. It is always possible that the project purpose will be forgotten as the requirements analysts and the users explore the work and the proposed product. As more and more requirements are discovered, and more and more exciting new ideas are proposed, the product might wind up being formed so that it no longer meets the original purpose of doing the project, and thus the original advantages are not realized.

Our approach is to write the project purpose, advantage, and measurement (PAM) on some large medium and have it at all meetings with stakeholders. Make sure it is visible and everyone is aware of it; treat it as a target that you are all aiming to meet. This approach helps to keep everyone aware of the purpose.

See Chapter 11, The Quality Gateway, for more on using the project purpose as a test for relevancy. The Quality Gateway runs each requirement through a series of tests, including relevancy. If a requirement is not in some way relevant to the purpose, it is rejected.

When you write the purpose, you should make the point that all decisions about the project are driven by this purpose. Make sure everyone understands that if the purpose changes during the project then you will need to review the scope, stakeholders, and any requirements that have been defined.