Setting Expectations: A Critical Pre-Project Activity
Jacob L. Peterson, Dennis C. Emmett · Engineering Management Journal · 1998
The expectations of clients or upper management for a project play as important a role as actual performance and results in the equation of project management success. The failure or success of projects is a direct consequence of matching clients' and managers' expectations against the results. Well before designs, schedules and result-oriented activities, expectations are being formed. Pre-project activities should shape the expectations so that realistic probabilities of success are ensured. From inception to justification, tactics for managing expectations should vary with the phases of the nascent project. Positioning, networking, and commitment participation are useful activities in the pre-project phase. Studying needs and developing solutions can precede a formal project, and influence the probability of success.