The concept canvas is an important tool that allows you and your organisation the ability to link any project opportunity with the outcomes that your organisation wants. It is basically your high level business case.
When you are thinking about project ideas that will provide positive outcomes for your organisation you are at the initiation phase. Before progressing the idea, you should be able to articulate the benefits and constraints to a client or project sponsor.
It can also give you the tools to communicate the must haves, might haves and the things that aren’t necessary.
The concept canvas is able to provide a high-level look at an opportunity and provides the reader with the components of the project as well as some high-level constraints such as cost, schedule and why the organisation should undertake the project.
This is an important time for the organisation when considering its project options. Now is the time when we consider whether it is the right project. Later during planning, we focus on doing the project right.
The first step in the concept canvas is to consider the current versus the ideal state. Let’s say our organisation wants to upgrade office technology….
We then ask ourselves why does this matter?
In other words, how does this opportunity align with the strategic objectives of our business. In our example there could be a range of reasons why it matters. For the sake of the example, we are going to say that we want to improve productivity.
Next, we want to consider what the outcomes and benefits for this opportunity are. These are the must haves. For our example our must haves are:
- The new technology must improve productivity
- Be scalable for growth, and
- Integrate with existing technology
Now we want to think about those benefits that would be nice to have. In our example it would be nice to:
- Enable new service channels
- Reduce energy costs
Lastly, we want to think about what we don’t want. In other words what is out of scope for this project. In our example we don’t want to include office furniture or telephones in our project opportunity.
These are things that we don’t want. Reasons for removing items include:
- It will blow out the budget
- It will not add meaningful benefit to the project, and
- It should be delivered by other projects
Now we want to consider some high-level constraints. Firstly, we start with our schedule.
Propose a reasonable timeframe for project delivery – between 6-12 months as an example. This allows the decision makers plenty of time to consider the opportunity and go through the necessary approvals process.
The second constraint we should think about is the cost. Keeping this high level, we should aim for plus or minus 30-50%. In our example we will say that the opportunity is going to cost between $40,000-$75,000.
Remember if you underestimate the costs, you may not have enough funds to complete the project. If you over-estimate, then it may not be approved due to being too expensive!
Finally, we want to be clear on who wants the project and those that are endorsing the project.
So, there you have it. If you want the template for the concept canvas, just follow the link below:
Get your free Concept Canvas here!
Lastly a big thanks to the Institute of Project Management for the use of their template. If you want to pursue further training in project management then just follow the link here – https://institute.pm/