Monthly Archives: October 2014

Most project professionals would be familiar with SMART criteria requirements.  The SMART term is a mnemonic acronym that defines that every requirement should comply with each of the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Timely attributes.

This philosophy is very effective at ensuring that project requirements are suitable, attainable and practicable, however the approach does little to define why the requirement should be included (drivers), how the requirement supports an objective or goal (calibration) and what the benefit of the requirement delivers (outcome).

At greenCore we developed an additional acronym that we believe everyone should adopt that further defines each requirement as appropriate by confirming that each requirement fulfils at least one of the following qualities:

Resolve a Problem
Exploit an Opportunity
Align to Strategic Objective
Produce a Business Benefit

At greenCore, we believe that all requirements (Business/Technical, Functional/Non-Functional) should satisfy at least one of the REAP elements.  If they don’t then they should not qualify as a suitable requirement.

As you may notice, these qualities comply with the Investment Logic Layer previously published under “The greenCore Anatomy of Project Change” (Drivers, Calibration & Outcome).

Feel free to use this approach for your project initiation phase in your next project.  We at greenCore are keen to hear of your experiences in using this model and of course would love to hear your views and comments.  Please share this if you believe our method is sound or may benefit others.

Over the coming weeks we will be posting a number of digests in the hopes of fostering some healthy discussion on this topic and others within our service domains.

This first ‘brief’ article is specifically around Project Change and the major elements, greenCore believes, are essential to effectively understand and validate why resources (people, funding and goods) should be consumed before commencing the delivery/execution phase of a project.

greenCore is passionate about supporting our customers through deliberate, informed and planned IT project change.  We believe that the “Investment Logic” layer contains the core elements that initiate, define and justify IT Project Change.  We are of the opinion that the starting/initiating phase of a project is the most critical, as this stage identifies the reason why you are about to expend resources, what the outcome should be and how that outcome aligns to an organisational, department or business unit goal or vision.

Whereas, the Delivery layer (although vitally important to achieve the desired outcome) contains the components necessary for producing the expected business benefit or product.

At greenCore we use this model as a method of confirming business expectations as well as rationales for originating change and the constraints around how and what the solution should adhere to.

Our next post will look at leveraging the Investment Logic Layer in more detail when gathering business and technical requirements during Project Initiation.