Why do you want this project?

Many or even most projects fail.   Success requires having a good reason before you start. 

Projects interfere with daily obligations. If you have no time left in your day now, it’s not going to magically appear when the project starts.  

They can be tedious.  Reviewing 5000 customer records for duplicates or checking that a couple 100 1000 procedure codes were entered consistently isn’t fun for most people.  

They can threaten people’s comfortable routines.  Folks may complain about all the time they spend on that spreadsheet. But that spreadsheet is half their job. And they’re probably worried about their future if the spreadsheet isn’t necessary. 

Which are all reasons why you better really, really want this project.  Something which says that this isn’t a nice to have, but a must have.   Something which says that when things get bogged down, you’re going to spend serious time and effort getting them fixed.  As in hiring temp workers or letting some things slide. 

Just making things better or more efficient are not good reasons. 

Good reasons include: 

 “We’re losing customers because we have no idea when we can ship.” 

Or “We can’t pass the audit because our currency numbers make no sense.” 

Or, “We can’t keep staff because our systems are impossible to use”. 

Don’t start before you have a good reason.