Take the First Step without Falling Off a Cliff:  Guide to Creating a Successful Project Proposal

By Irene Rozansky

In the past decade, there has been a dramatic move toward formal project management in companies of all sizes and across all industries.  Project management skills are an essential skill-set for the 21st Century.  In fact, by 2004, nearly 100% of Fortune 500 companies had attempted to implement some form of Project Management Office¹.  A Project Management Office is an organization that is set up by the enterprise specifically to manage and/or monitor all key projects. For most other companies, however, choosing and conducting projects is more informal without standardized processes in place.

So, here it is.  You or someone in your company has recognized the need for a business continuity plan (BCP) to maintain the long-term health of your company, and you have been chosen to draft the plan.  A BCP²  is a multifaceted procedural document that guides a business to respond to and recover from any critical incident that has the potential for resulting in great loss or damage to the business. 

Whether developing a BCPinvolves just one person or a cast of hundreds, at the outset it is considered a “project” because in developing it, a temporaryendeavor is undertaken to create a uniqueresult (your plan for your organization).  There is a beginning and end to the development project.  Only after the business continuity life-cycle³ has been completed does the business continuity program⁴ itself become part of continuing operations with on-going up-dating, training, and testing.  The figure below is an example of the business continuity life-cycle.  During the on-going operations there will be new “projects” that come up from time to time (e.g., implementation of a new backup system, creating an awareness program for a new unit, the annual analysis of risks, etc.) which will require the project management discipline.

Simple Business Continuity Lifecycle:

Figure 1

Where do you start?  It is likely that this will not be the only project on your plate or for others in your company, and it is likely that the person who asked you to create the BCP may not truly understand the depth of the endeavor.  So, where you need to start is with a Project Proposal. 

Four factors are crucial for the success of any project: 

• getting agreement up front on the goals of the project among all parties involved (stakeholders), and
• obtaining the proper budget and other resources, and
• keeping the project focused and productive, and
• getting and keeping management support.

Creating a successful Project Proposal takes care of creating the rules and environment that handle the first three and a half success factors.

Therefore, it is wise to start with a Project Proposal.  Getting senior management to sign off on the proposal will give yourself a fighting chance to create a successful plan, giving you the appropriate buy-in for the necessary budget, schedule, resources and project scope.

The Project Proposal is the first of a series of documents⁵ that are necessary elements in managing a project.  The Project Proposal sets the tone for the entire project.  It is often combined with a Statement of Work (SOW), as recommended here. If your company uses a third-party consultant to assist in the project, a SOW will often be provided by those who respond to your request for proposal.  The external SOW needs to be folded into your Project Proposal.⁶   And, if your company has formal processes in place for defining, planning and controlling projects, it is imperative that you follow them. 

Clear expectations begin with the SOW Project Proposal, which moves an idea (“we need to ensure the safety of our employees during a disaster”) to a tangible, achievable goal (“create an emergency evacuation plan to ensure all employees can exit the building in under two minutes”).  Once written, the SOW Project Proposal is subject to negotiation and modification by the major stakeholders⁷. Once the stakeholders formally agree to its content, the SOW Project Proposal becomes the set of rules for the project, and is a tool for managing the stakeholders’ expectations and managing project changes, which are sure to come up.

Benefits of a well-written SOW Project Proposal

• Helps size the project appropriately to business needs
• Gives the project team direction – to keep it focused and productive
• Management understands both costs and benefits of the project
• Management makes informed decisions regarding resources, funding and timing
• Allows for negotiation and agreement on the goals of the project
• Gives the project team the management support needed to be successful
• Helps everyone decide if the project can be done with internal resources or if all or parts of the project need to be outsourced

SOW Project Proposal Elements

• Project Goal Statement – The Project Goal Statement answers why you are doing the BCP project.  This gives the business case, the primary results to be achieved at a high level, but not in detail.  It defines the problem or opportunity without a solution, which comes in the next section.  E.g. “During the last two tests of our Evacuation Plan, the Fire Department warned that some people might not make it out of the building on time to avoid personal harm.  This project will improve our ability to ensure the safety of our employees during any type of disaster.”

• Proposed Solution and Deliverables – The Proposed Solution describes what the project will produce and what that product (e.g., BCP) will do to address the situation defined in the Project Goal Statement.  Give thought to what organizations, business processes, and technology will be affected.  This is a statement of the ultimate output, including intermediatedeliverables (e.g., “A pilot plan for the Insert Department.”), enddeliverables (e.g., “An enterprise-wide Evacuation Plan to reduce the evacuation time to two minutes, that is tested, all employees are trained, new warning system technology is installed, and new exit-only panic-bar doors are constructed.”), and project management deliverables (e.g., written bi-weekly status reports).  As with the Scope Statement (below), Deliverables help set boundaries for the project team and keeps them focused.  This statement can only be given if you have a good idea of the detailed product description (i.e. what is included in each of the components of the deliverables).  

• Cost/Benefit Analysis – The Cost/Benefit Analysis summarizes the financial reasons for taking on the project at a high level.  Even if this project is seen as an investment (like purchasing insurance) without expected ROI, a cost/benefit analysis can be created to point out the expected costs. You will likely create a C/B analysis later on in the project to help management decide which strategies and solutions to pursue.  It should include the following Impacts:
• Tangible Benefits
• Intangible Benefits
• Cost Categories
• Internal labor hours
• External costs
• Labor (consultants, contract labor)
• Equipment, hardware, software
• List other costs such as travel & training
• Financial Return, if appropriate.

• Business Requirements/Objectives – The Business Requirements/Objectives summarizes the measures for success of the project.  When the objectives have been achieved, the project is complete.  Knowledge of the business requirements for the project is stated as project objectives.  (e.g., “1) Identify high-level risks to, and business impacts from, various types of critical incidents affecting the headquarters facility.   This includes determining business and financial impacts over specific time frames. 2) Identify levels of business interruption and what general actions need to be taken at each level per time frame.  Specific actions will be determined as part of the BCPs.”) Once all the requirements/objectives have been identified, the Project Manager can estimate the effort it will take to meet the objectives.  If the objectives are approved during the project proposal phase, it then allows the project to be brought in on time and within budget.  Give thought to what other objectives are needed to make the project successful. (e.g., “Installation of the new warning system will not disrupt the normal business operations.”)  Try to make your objectives SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely (time-contained).

• Scope Statement – The Scope Statement describes the major activities of the project in such a way that it will be absolutely clear what the boundaries are of the project.  It is not as detailed as the later developed project plan, but must include the major project activities.  The Scope Statement is the appropriate place to emphasize the relationship of this project to other on-going projects.  (e.g., “The scope of this BCP project will be limited to achieving the objectives outlined above.  All the efforts will be focused on seven departments located in the headquarters facility in Anytown USA. Data for this project will be gathered via email surveys, seven departmental workshops, and five executive interviews.)

• “Not” Statement – The Not Statement describes what the project will not deliver.  Think of what are the “out of scope” activities that are critical to the success of the project. (e.g., “This project will not create standard operating procedures for any department.”)

• Major Obstacles & Risks – The Major Obstacles and Risks describe the obstacles to success certain to occur and known risks that might occur (threats) that could cause disruptions to or failure of the project.  These are not obstacles and risks to your company in general, or the risks that the business faces.  They are project-specific.  (e.g., “Obstacle #1: This project will be carried out at the same time as the new ERP system will be carried out.  It is known that some team members will be unavailable during the weeks of 3/16-4/16 and this will likely cause a delay in the outcome of this project.  Risk #1: The Project Manager is up for a promotion that may require relocation to another corporate facility.)

• Stakeholders – This is a list of who the stakeholders are (e.g., project manager, team, sponsor, management, and others) and their roles and contributions to the success of the project.  It is helpful to use a Responsibility Matrix.

• Chain-of-Command – The Chain-of-Command is the organizational chart for the project. Unless it is for a self-contained department, the chart is especially useful because most BCP projects cross organizational boundaries.  The Chain-of-Command is directly related to the list of stakeholders and the Responsibility Matrix.

• Schedule Overview – The Schedule Overview contains realistic and accurate cost and schedule estimates.  At this point, because this is only the project proposal, the estimates will either be “ball-park” or “order-of-magnitude” estimates. Include a determination of the budget and deadline and explain how these estimates were produced (i.e. what is behind the estimates).  Include:
• Estimated project completion date
• Major milestones
• External milestones affecting the project
• Impact of late deliver

• Project Section & Ranking Criteria – If appropriate, to assist those who will be ranking this project against others, you should include a Project Benefit Category (Compliance/Regulatory, Efficiency/Cost, Revenue Increase, or Business Continuance), a Portfolio Fit and Interdependencies Category, and Project Urgency Category.

Conclusion

The SOW Project Proposal is a living document.  It is provided to the stakeholders for discussion and changes will be made based on their feedback.  Expect that!  At the end of the project, the SOW Project Proposal may be different from the original document.  Expect that, too.  The amount of difference is not important.  Keeping everyone up to date and ensuring the stakeholders agree to the changes along the way is important! 

Keep in mind that these guidelines are good for any project you wish to pursue. Let us know when you have tried this approach and what the results were.

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1. The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, 2nd Edition, 2005, Eric Verzuh, p. 4.  Some are called Program Management Offices or Portfolio Offices.


2. A rose by any other name is still a rose – BCP can mean crisis plan, resiliency plan, disaster recovery or business recovery plan, etc.


3. The Business Continuity Lifecycle encompasses risk assessment, business impact analysis, strategy development, plan development, training, and testing the plan. 


4. The Business Continuity Program includes all of the above (Footnote 3) elements.  In other words, it is more than simply the plan by itself.


5. Other documents include the Project Charter (announces the project to the organization and provides the Project Manager with the decision-making authority for the project), Statement of Work (can be a separate document from the Proposal), Responsibility Matrix, Communication Plan, Risk Management Plan, Quality Plan, Test Plan, etc.  All of these documents are encompassed in the overall Project Plan.


6. This process precedes the creation of the Project Plan, which is far more detailed and includes other sub-plans.


7. See “Stakeholders,” SOW Project Proposal Elements, Section 8