Notes for Project Boards > What approach do you choose?

I already discussed 'What's a project'. In short: 'When everything else fails an initiative becomes a project', when there is no organization and processes in place to handle the request.

But what to do in case the requested result is fairly simple, there are few risks, planning is not essential and budget is not an issue? Or in case the request comprises of several standard requests that are interdependent? Will initiatives of this kind still require a project approach? It is clear that in those cases a complete project set up is far too much. In those cases one will need another approach. One could consider an ad hoc approach or coordinative activities to get the required result.

The question however is what do we mean when we say: 'fairly', 'few', 'essential', 'issue'. These are all relative compared to the characteristics of the organization, its environment, the growth phase and so on. A change can be simple for one and complex for another organization. Or what is now a big investment might at another point in time be considere as pocket money. Therefore one should consider the SWOT of an organization before one can decide on this. The right choice for a project approach is situational.

So, if no standard organization and processes are able to handle the request consider project approach, do SWOT analyses and decide on how stringent a project approach you will need. I will come back on approach in another posting.