What Is Project Design?

Project design is one of the earliest stages in the life of a project (exactly when it occurs
varies by organization). During project design, an outline of the project is created,
including:

 The organization(s) responsible for completing it

 A description of the project 
 Goals, outcomes, and objectives, and when they will be completed
 Major deliverables, products, and/or features Success criteria, and/or
monitoring and evaluation guidelines
 Budget estimates

7 Steps to Effective Project Design

We’ll explain how to design projects for specific industries in the sections below.
Regardless of your industry, however, there are some basic steps you should follow
during the project design phase. These steps will help you create an effective project
design document, and work more effectively with all parties involved.

1. Define Project Goal

First and foremost, you should meet with your team and key stakeholders to define the
ultimate goal or outcome of your project. This might be the product that is going to be
developed, the service that will be provided, or the problem your project will solve. 

Consider the needs and expectations of all stakeholders and/or beneficiaries when
determining your goals, and get their approval early on. Make sure your team members
weigh in on the accuracy and feasibility of the goals you define, as well. Remember, the
more of this you can figure out ahead of time, the easier your project will be to manage
later.

2. Determine Outcomes, Objectives, and/or Deliverables

After the primary goals have been established, break each down into smaller, more
manageable pieces. In some industries, such as nonprofit and education, these pieces
are objectives or outcomes—for example, solutions to problems that have been
identified for the population you’re trying to help, or learning goals that students need to
achieve. In other industries, such as project management and software development,
the smaller pieces may be deliverables, such as a marketing plan, or a prototype of the
software. 

During the design phase, some organizations break down outcomes, objectives, and/or
deliverables even further into the tasks and activities required to complete them. Others
save the task/activity breakdown for a later phase of the project life cycle, such as
during project scheduling. It’s up to your organization to decide what works best. 

Whatever your process, it’s helpful to use the SMART acronym when identifying

outcomes, objectives, and/or deliverables. Make sure they are:

 Specific: Be as clear and direct as possible so that later, you can plan
the tasks that will be performed to achieve them. Provide specific
guidance on which resources are involved and their roles.
 Measurable: Outcomes, objectives, and/or deliverables must be
quantifiable. This way, you’ll be able to measure results and track
progress.
 Achievable: Make sure goals can realistically be achieved given the
resources, budget, and time frame available. 
 Relevant: All outcomes, objectives, and/or deliverables should logically
result in achieving project goals and producing intended results.
 Time-Bound: Provide a timeline for when they will be
achieved/completed.

3. Identify Risks, Constraints, and Assumptions

Now that you’ve determined what you want your project to achieve, identify anything
that could stand in the way of its success. Document any risks and constraints on
budget, time, or resources that could affect your team’s ability to reach goals,
milestones, and outcomes. Then try to resolve as many of these problems as you can.
This will help prevent delays once the project is underway. 

It’s also good practice to document any assumptions made during the project design
phase. These will come in handy when you create a Statement of Work (SOW) and/or
project schedule, and will also help you estimate costs more accurately. 

“Look out for assumptions,” says Lonergan. “All projects are built on assumptions, and
smart project managers know this. At the start of the project, the scope for assumptions
is unlimited. Smart project managers capture these within the design process, then deal
with them in a very disciplined manner.”

For example, if you assume that a necessary piece of equipment will be available when
the project reaches the installation phase, this should be noted. That way, if the person
who makes the schedule discovers the equipment isn’t available until a later date, you’ll
be informed and can adjust the timeline and budget accordingly—before the actual
work begins. 

4. Prepare a Visual Aid 

Once you’ve determined your goals, outcomes, and risks, you can prepare a visual aid
to represent part or all of the project. Visualizations are particularly common in the
creative, construction, nonprofit, and software development verticals. However, using
visualizations can be useful when managing any type of project since they provide team
members and stakeholders an easily understandable snapshot of the project’s goals,
outcomes, deliverables, products, services, and/or functionality. 

Visual aids may include:

 Sketches or drawings
 Plans, schematics, or rough blueprints
 Flow charts 
 Site trees
 Gantt charts
 Screenshots or screen designs
 Photos
 Prototypes
 Mind maps
 Whiteboard drawings

The type of visual aid you choose may depend on your industry. In project
management, Gantt charts, mind maps, and whiteboard drawings are often used to
visualize early-stage project designs. In software development, diagrams, trees, charts,
or maps of the software architecture and/or functionality are common (more on this in
the software development section below). Prototypes or models may be created for
product development projects. While flow charts are common in the nonprofit realm.
In construction project management, blueprints, drawings, schematics, and/or plans are
produced, which are then reviewed by an engineer or architect. Once approved,
working drawings are created out of the preliminary plans, which are used when
performing the actual construction.

5. Ballpark Your Budget

It’s important to know the budget right from the start. Even if you don’t have a complete
picture of the costs and incomes your project will generate, create a budget in as much
detail as you can. The clearer you can be about your budget during the project design
phase, the less likely you are to experience unexpected cost overruns later. 

Estimating your budget will also help you determine the feasibility of the project. If the
cost is more than your client, customer, funding source, or partnering entity can spare,
the project can’t realistically be undertaken. 

6. Determine Approval and Monitoring Processes

Now that you have a picture of the project’s goals, risks, and budget, decide how
success will be determined. List the criteria you’ll use to judge whether deliverables,
outcomes, and the final product have been achieved. You should also determine what
processes must be followed in order for the project and its elements to be approved,
and who is responsible for approval.

“The goal of the design phase is to have a definite understanding of what success looks
like to the project sponsors and key stakeholders,” says Dave Wakeman, Principal
at Wakeman Consulting Group. “What I want isn't important. What the sponsors and
stakeholders want is. So I spend a tremendous amount of time understanding what
success means to them.”

For projects that are quite technical or complex, you may also want to add a stage for
“proof of concept.” This allows the preliminary design of a product or service to be
tested for viability before the project advances to the next phase. Performing this stage
can save a lot of time and money if the test isn’t successful. If your proof of concept is
feasible, this can reassure clients, stakeholders, and/or funding sources they have
made a good investment.

7. Use Proper Project Design Documents

Of course, you must also use the proper documentation to capture all this information.
In project management, the output of the design phase may be as simple as a Gantt
chart, flow chart, work chart, or hierarchy chart that is carried into the project planning
phase. However, many projects do not have a formal design phase. Instead, there is an
initiation phase, in which a detailed project plan, project charter, or project initiation
document (PID) is created. The approach you take will depend on your organization.

Creative projects, such as those in the advertising and marketing industries, also use a
slightly different document for the project design phase: creative briefs. These
documents more closely resemble a project plan or SOW, and serve to identify goals
and outcomes, deliverables, team members, budget, scope, and schedule. Briefs may
also include industry-specific sections, such as information about the target audience for
a campaign.

5 Expert Tips for Effective Project Design

We’ve rounded up expert advice for best practices and more effective project design.
These five tips will help you create effective project design documents for any industry. 

1. Design projects with the ultimate goal in mind. As we’ve discussed, perhaps the
most important thing to remember when designing projects is to start with the ultimate
goal or outcome and work backwards. Identify the end result you want your project to
achieve, and then break it into smaller chunks that each contribute to the ultimate goal.

“In one important way, education is no different than other … verticals in that the most
important habit in the project design phase is starting with the end in mind,” says
DreamBox’s Hudson.

Wakeman of Wakeman Consulting Group echoes this sentiment. “In any project design,
I really try to clarify the intended outcomes as much as possible. In too many projects,
the teams get jammed up by the desire to want to create something cool or innovative,
but then find the project failing due to no understanding of what the intended outcomes
are. So I lead with [an] outcome-based focus,” he explains. 

2. Meet with all stakeholders. It’s important that all parties involved be consulted
during the project design phase. Hold regular team meetings, and make sure to include
all relevant stakeholders in at least the initial session.

“Bring all of the stakeholders ... into the discussion,” says Elyse Kaye, CEO of product
development consultancy AHA Product Solutions. “Aligning on goals and pulling
innovative ideas from each will help to streamline the process. On countless projects,
suggestions or questions come from the most unsuspecting folks, which can help to
redefine the whole project.”

Kaye emphasizes the importance of communication with stakeholders. She suggests

meeting at least every other week to discuss any issues. “Most projects fail not because
the intent, design, or idea was not viable, but because the team was lacking in
communication and understanding,” she says. “Work with your stakeholders to agree on
the goal, the process, the risks, and the responsibilities.”

Webb Mason Marketing’s Carrol says it’s important to consult with the client during
project design. “Listen carefully to the client in initial conversations, and clearly outline
‘must-haves’ versus ‘nice-to-haves,” he says. “Constantly communicate with the client
[about] the project status and ... [about any] thoughts that the internal team may be
discussing to build client engagement throughout the design process. Pay close
attention to the client’s brand standards, if provided.”

3. Consult industry and/or professional association resources. Planning Pod’s

Kear recommends finding online project management resources for your industry or
specialty to guide you during the project design phase. 
“Project management protocols and best practices can sometimes vary from one
industry to another,” Kear says. “I would also encourage you to reach out to the local
professional organization for your industry, and talk to someone on the board to see if
they can introduce [you] to a seasoned pro in [your] industry who has experience with
project management. There is no substitute for learning from an experienced
professional.” 

4. Consult internal resources. Regular team meetings are a cornerstone of project

management. These meetings keep everyone on track as the project design phase
progresses, and allow you to consult with staff members who can inform the process.
Your organization’s internal documentation may also provide you with useful
information.

ProjectBliss.net’s Espy recommends, “turning to the team subject matter experts, such
as [software] architects and tool product owners, [as well as] other tools and data
sources we'll integrate with, and previous design documents. Also, communicate
heavily, and ensure you follow your organization's approval processes.” 

In the design phase of large-scale projects at BrandExtract, Puente says, “Department

heads/team leads meet to review the final approved scope and determine priorities.
Here, we'll also flow out all the strategies and tactics, and finalize Gantt charts with the
help of project managers. … We might break out into a couple of working sessions, if
needed.”

Cazad, of Character.org, suggests that you “determine a point person for each aspect of
the project. Outline initial steps for each person, and the process of how they work
together. Maybe a weekly debrief meeting is best. Maybe collaborative living documents
… work well enough.” She also suggests referring to “survey results, notes, and
documentation from projects past, budgets (past and current), [and] previous projects'
calendars.”

5. Review and revise as you go. Project design is a complicated process, and your
design documentation may need to be updated and edited as you go. Don’t get
frustrated if you find yourself making changes, as this is standard practice.

Alona Rudnitsky, Co-Founder and COO of Helix House Digital Advertising Agency, says,
“The primary goal for the design process is to move your project through revisions and
refinement to find the best solution for the client's problem. It's a way to look at the project
from every possible angle and perspective to achieve the solution. It's also a way to not get
‘stuck’ creatively. If you just sit down to a blank canvas and try to paint an entire scene, it
can get overwhelming.”
What Is Project Design?

Project design is one of the first responsibilities of the project

manager for a given project. In this stage of the project, the
decisions about how to manage and govern are made. A project
plan is created and centers on the needs of the stakeholders, the
organization and the project itself, of course. This document will
then be used to manage all further stages of the project.

The thinking that goes on during the project design, however,

doesn’t focus on details as much as it works on a higher level in
terms of managing the project. Project planning software can help
with organizing both the high level strategy and the specific details
of a project design.

The Details

The project design includes everything from who is responsible for

completing the project to a description of the project, its goals,
outcomes and objectives. It describes when these goals, outcomes
and objectives will be reached, and the major deliverables, products
or features that will be completed. The project design also estimates
the budget and outlines how to monitor and evaluate progress.

There can be more than one design presented to stakeholders, who

can then choose which they think best suits their needs.
The Structure of Project Design

How do you design a product to deliver on its promise? It’s difficult!

But project management has a process.

There are steps to take for defining projects and developing an

implementation strategy. They are the most important steps in a
project. Therefore, you want to involve your team and stakeholders
in the process to make sure you’re covering all the bases. Take the
time to complete this stage thoroughly.

What’s the Vision?

What’s your vision for the project? This isn’t some pie in the sky
hope, but a vision statement, which envisions a problem that needs
resolution. That means clarifying the reason for the project.
The vision statement is a formal document that states the project’s
potential. It’s presented to stakeholders to show the viability of the
project and its benefits.
It isn’t a long, detailed document. You can have a short, idealistic
vision in terms of the outcome of the project; after all, this is how
you sell the project. So, paint a picture of the project’s success, and
place it in a larger context.

What’s the Problem?

To support that vision document, you need to identify a problem

that needs solving. Therefore, a needs assessment is often required,
so you can see the obstacles the business is encountering. This will
align the problem you’re addressing with the organization and its
strategy. It will also provide you with the necessary data to design
an optimal solution for the problem.

To begin, what information are you gathering? What sources are

there for that information, and how will you then gather the
information? Next, analyze and determine the problems that your
project is being created to resolve. Collect those results in a
document.

Who and What Resources?

Next you need to recognize the necessary resources to get the

project done. Resources are anything from people to equipment to
the facilities necessary to complete the project successfully.

A good way to figure out the resources is the same way journalists
approach a news story, with the Five W’s: who, what, where, when
and why. Who do you need to execute the project, what resource
management tools are required, where will the work be done, when
will the project start and end, and why are these resources needed?

What Are the Project Goals?

You can’t achieve your goals if you’ve not first identified them. A
goal is something at the end of the project that is both observable
and measurable. A goal coincides with the resolution of a problem.

Create a goal statement that explains how the goals are addressed
in the project. To do this well, apply the SMART method, which
stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-
relevant. Each goal should be defined by these terms.

What’s the Project Strategy?

To achieve the project goals there must be a strategy in place. A

strategy is a process to reach the goals of the project within the
project constraints, such as its resources, schedule, budget, etc.
How can a strategy be created to achieve the project goals?

Consider precedent and look back on similar projects from the past
and what they might have shown in terms of the pros and cons of
their applied strategies. Best practices for project management is
always a good foundation, and then build a strategy incrementally,
creating a pathway to success.

What’s the Contingency Plan?

Any project manager knows that very few things proceed as

planned. There needs to be backup plan to respond quickly and
rightly to issues as they arise in a project. Therefore, this must be
included in your project design.

Look for the negative risks inherent in the project. They are

embedded in various places, such as teams, which might lack skills,
have unavoidable absences, turnover, etc. Schedules can be
plagued with delays. Scope might have been poorly defined. Costs
are underestimated, or funds dry up. Have a plan to address these
risks.

What’s the Evaluation Plan?

A project must always be under evaluation. An evaluation plan will

help you monitor the project, and maybe even alert you when it
starts to veer off track. Use this plan to analyze the components of
the project, the outcomes and impacts.

Outcomes are measurable changes, while impacts are how well the
project goals are being achieved. Therefore, the evaluation plan is a
detailed document that defines a criteria to determine the project
effectiveness and efficiency by tracking progress on all aspects of
the project.

What’s the Budget?

The budget outlines the financial resources that drive the project. A
budget will assign a cost to each of the of the project
requirements. Creating a project budget means formalizing financial
resources that will be allocated to the project. This begins with
choosing a way to estimate costs, identify impacts and report on the
evaluation.

What’s the Project Proposal?

All of this leads to a project proposal to explain why the project

should be executed and what its benefits are. The previous steps
are summarized, writing out the vision of the project and a brief
description of the problem that it speaks to. Then state the goals of
the project and outline the strategy that will be used to achieve
those goals.

Related: Project Proposal Template

What ProjectManager.com Can Do to Help Your Project Design

That’s a lot of work, but by creating an outline that details these

various parts of the project, you’re setting up the project for
success. Therefore, you’ll want to execute a project before the
project—because the project design is itself a project, with goals,
tasks and deliverables.

In order to keep all of those various documents in order and to

make sure that they’re done in a timely fashion, you’ll need to
manage workflow. ProjectManager.com has a kanban feature that
was created to visualize workflow.

Each board is a project, and every board has columns and cards.
The columns can be each of the nine steps to project design, and
the cards beneath this column can be the individual tasks.
A project design is the first phase of the project cycle. At the beginning, a project
develops as an idea or vision-which is feasible. However, the steps to make it feasible is
quite difficult. An idea can only become a reality once it is broken down into organized,
actionable elements within a timeline. NGO project design centers around problems and
solutions: it involves identifying a prevailing/future problem that is/may impact a target
population.

Project design is a crucial stage in a project’s lifecycle because it identifies key

elements by outlining the answers to 4 Ws of the project: What-Where-When-Who.

What: defines the project itself

Where: is the internal and external environment

When: is the time frame

Who: is you and the beneficiaries

Project design consists of the following elements:

Project Background

It describes the history of how you developed the idea for your project and the status
quo that you want to change. This is where you explain exactly why your project should
take place in your community and what the problem is you aim to solve.

Project Context

It is the description of the internal and external environment where the project is going
to be undertaken and the effect of the environment on the project. The environment
includes risk and opportunity (SWOT Analysis)

Risks and Assumptions

You have to take risks and assumptions into account when planning your project as
they might change the entire setup if the event actually occurs. They might even end
your entire project if the occur.
Goals and Objectives

Project goals and objectives are similar in that they are both the reason for why the
project needs to take place. The goal gives direction to the project. The objectives are
the specific targets the project aims to achieve to meet the goal. In short, the goal can
be seen as the high-level, “shoot-for-the-stars” vision while the objectives are the
grounded, well-thought-out plan to reach that vision.

Output and Outcomes

Both outputs and outcomes are direct results from a project. Many NGOs focus on
outputs because they are easier to measure. However, the evaluating outcomes should
be emphasized as those are the direct changes in the lives of beneficiaries that are
most important.

Beneficiaries or Stakeholders

Every project is designed for the beneficiaries. The project beneficiaries are the people
whose circumstances you want to change by implementing your idea. They are also
called the target group or the target beneficiaries of your project.

Activities

Project activities are actions undertaken by the project to achieve the set objectives.
Activities are typically designed according to the project’s strategy.

Timeline

Timeline basically shows the chronological order of events that you plan to do in your
project. A timeline is not a detailed work plan, but a quick way to present an overview of
your planned activities.

Workplan
A work plan is a description of the sequence of the project activities in time. It is much
more detailed than a mere timeline though. It includes information about responsibilities,
objectives and sometimes even the budget.

Budget estimates

A budget is an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time. Project
budget simply refers to a document which specifies how much money needs to be
allocated and how will the allocated money be implemented on the activities to achieve
the goal of the project.

Sustainability

Sustainability is the ability of an organization to continue its mission or program far into
the future. All projects have to end eventually, but the project impact should continue.

Monitoring and Evaluation Strategies

Monitoring and Evaluation strategies is an approach that has mainly been developed to
measure and assess the success and performance of projects, programs or entire
organizations.