52 Project Management
Identifying the True Need
The term “true need” refers to the most basic problem to be
solved. Identifying your project’s true need can, at times, be
tricky. But it’s absolutely vital that you as the project manager
understand what the true need is.
Why? Because many will judge you as a project manager
by your ability to solve the original problem. Solving the origi-
nal problem equates to satisfying the true need. And you cannot
be certain that you’ll satisfy the true need unless you know what
it is. The problem is that when you’re assigned to manage a
project you may not be presented with the true need explicitly.
Terminology can become confused: what’s described as a need
may actually be the solution to a need.
This is exactly what happened to Brad. What the “require-
ments” document identified as a need—namely, to install an
additional production line—was actually a solution. Though
Brad senses this intuitively, Figure 4-1 lists indicators that could
have helped him verify his intuition.
Most books on project management deal only with the
“mechanics” of managing projects and helping you manage the
project you’ve been assigned. However, properly identifying and
quantifying the true need is actually more important than plan-
A Customer REQUIREMENT
(the need):
Describes the necessary client’s
ends.A Proposed SOLUTION (the
project):
Describes the team’s means to the
ends.
Specifies goals and targets; does not
identify how to achieve them.Develops specific strategies and
detailed ideas for achieving the goals
and targets.
Leaves open the question as to
“how to do it.”Closes the door on the question of
“how to do it.”
The answer to “why are we doing
it” should yield the business
justification.The answer to “why we are doing
it” should yield the customer
requirements.Figure 4-1. Indicators that verify intuition about a project