Project Definition Template
The process of completing this template is intended to raise questions that will require effort to find the answers. The more complete the answers, the better the project definition. When completed, the project definition should provide a comprehensive overview (at that point in time) of the project, which will be useful to the Manager, (sponsors), and Customers.
Remember it is in your responsibility to ask and keep track of the meetings with the customer.
Below are some questions that help you to form the definition. NOTE: it might be that you do not need to answer every question it depends on your product, customers and users. The definition of users is extended, because we will emphasise here the user oriented design process.
The main idea with the project definition is that it gives to the team and to the customer guidelines of what is the idea of the product, how it will be done and how the user group is taken into consideration. Thus, defining the user group, its interest, goals and usage conventions (habits) is important for the planning and designing of the interface and the structure of the product (you can link the wiki-pages of your end-user description and mock-ups into the project definition page page when these are ready). Further, refer to your tea, shared space for the GANTT that you can update, so that you can keep track of how you proceed as team with project and how the individual are getting along with their tasks!
Project Name (Short, descriptive, official project name)
- Project Sponsor(s): (Customer and/or other sponsors, grants etc. if any)
- Project Manager: (Name and % of time committed to this project).
- Email List: (all the necessary contact information also from the customers side – try find out who in the customers side is the one that has power to do the decisions. This is important knowledge in possible problems of decisions on the customer’s side. How information will be exchanged with customers throughout the project cycle!!! Important may help to avoid miscommunication).
- Web Site: (if the customer has one)
Project Team
(Individual names and % of time committed to this project and the tasks and responsibility areas)
Project Description/Narrative
(Project context, background and expected benefits)
Constraints
(Obstacles to achieving the project objectives)
Specific Objectives
(What will be achieved?)
Specific Deliverables
(What will be delivered to the customer?)
Scope
(What is and is not included in the project? Customer has agreed and signed off. This is very important point so that the customer does not start to ask more than you have agreed on!)
Start Date/Estimated Timeline
(Start date and planned schedule take a screen shot of the Process View of your team shared space in its current state).
Describe all the information and data contained and processed by the application
In an interactive product/service the information content can be divided into two parts:
The structure of your product/service as a diagram
(parts and their relationships). This will include any static content of the product/service.
Describe the functionality of your application
i.e. the way the application will work and which services and features it will provide. Remember to cover all significant functions.
The functionality for managing the dynamic content is an important part of the requirements. The functionality for inputting and processing (moving, adding, modifying, deleting, printing, ...) data must be defined.
In describing the functions, you should provide
- Outline of the related forms for data input
- Description on how the input data will be processed on the server
User definition
Definitions and profiles of users of the site
More info on profiles serco.com:http://www.serco.com/usability/services/needs/index.asp