Pre-project: the 3 stages that determine the launch of your project... and its success!

The pre-project phase is an essential part of project management.

If we had to sum up the value of this phase in one expression, it would be "don't put the cart before the horse".

In order to be sure of your project's relevance and move on to the scoping stage, it's important to remember how the idea came about, its usefulness and purpose in relation to your needs, and above all whether it's feasible.

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What is a preliminary project?

In any project management worthy of the name, the preliminary project is the preparatory phase, its preliminary study.

Among its objectives is the study of the project's feasibility and viability before taking the decision to start or abandon it, by analyzing all relevant information, both :

• Technical → does the company have the skills and technical resources in-house? Can these be mobilized via external service providers?
  
  
• Economic → are the expected economic benefits (return on investment) potentially greater than the cost of the project? Is the market buoyant?

If the project team is managing a portfolio of projects, this phase can also be used to prioritize them.

The most profitable project will be favored according to :

• expected profit,
• constraints identified (economic and/or technical).

☝️ Do not confuse this notion of project management with the preliminary design (APS), and the detailed design or final design (APD) used used by architectural and engineering firms to determine the essentials of a project, in particular the dimensions of a structure, using plans, sections and façades.

Pre-project stages

Before scoping and planning a project, you need to go through the following stages:

Expression of need

Also known as the needs assessment or needs study, this stage outlines the project's objectives and background.

A needs expression form or compendium summarizes :

• the purpose and raison d'être of the project,
• the context,
• project scope, including start and end dates,
• stakeholders,
• objectives and user requirements,
• deadlines and key milestones,
• opportunities to be seized,
• expected benefits,
• constraints and potential risks,
• potential impacts, on the company for example.

Opportunity study

For a complex project with high stakes, it may be wise to carry out an opportunity study to confirm its validity.

The expression of needs is one of its components. To this must be added :

• analysis of the situation, including company strategy, key success factors and evaluation criteria,
• expected results, with SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) indicators,
• the various possible options and scenarios,
• the recommendation resulting from the study,
• evaluation criteria, etc.

The feasibility study

Finally, the feasibility study consolidates the opportunity study.

Its purpose is to verify the balance between the 3 important factors in any project, namely :

• the quality to be achieved
• the deadlines to be met,
• costs to be borne.

To do this, it describes in detail the resources and constraints :

• technical,
• quality
• financial,
• time constraints,

so that all stakeholders are aware of the project's objectives and challenges, before validating it and moving on to the scoping phase.

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And after the preliminary project?

If the project goes ahead, all the stages of the pre-project phase are used to draw up the specifications and/or the scoping memorandum, necessary for planning and then carrying out the project.

And, at the end of the chain, just as important as the preliminary project, don't forget the project review: it enables you to analyze your successes and failures, which you owe to good preparation, or on the contrary to the botched preliminary project.