Part II: Purpose Definition, Personnel 
Organization, Management Tools
Know What You Are Supposed to Do and How You Will Do It 

Introduction

What is the purpose of your project? This simple and essential question is frequently answered late, partially, or not at all, which guarantees failure. If you do not know what you want, how will you know if you get it? If you cannot answer this question then stop. You do not have a project. 

   The definition of the project purpose must include three parts: (1) product (including grade of material and essential features), (2) cost, and (3) time (of start, execution, and completion). All three parts are interactive and must be determined at the same time. These three parts must be defined before you can determine feasibility and start the project, and they must be used throughout the execution of the project to make sure you are achieving this purpose. Miss one of the three and failure is certain. Properly define all three and success is possible and (with hard work) probable. 

   The project personnel must then be organized to achieve this defined purpose. It starts with recognizing the nature of people. And then uses a very flat (few management layers) organizational structure that helps distribute knowledge to all project personnel. Then these personnel are made responsible for self control—they know what they’re supposed to do, what they’re doing right now, if they’re achieving the required result, and how to make the necessary corrections.

   Lastly there are tools—project management, estimating, and scheduling—that can assist these efforts. But these are only effective with a defined purpose and effectively organized personnel. A fancy software package is not a magic bullet. Scheduling programs do not keep projects on schedule, people do. These are tools—essential, effective, and powerful—but tools that can only produce results by right-thinking, properly organized, project personnel. 

   A defined purpose, effective personnel organization, and use of management tools by these personnel are the framework for project success.