International Project Management: Leadership in Complex Environments

There are a number of end products that you might typically find in any project. These are more complex in international projects because you are projecting the project down to each location or business unit. Here are some specific end products.

• Technical, business, and political purposes of the project from different viewpoints and levels;

• Scope of the project in each location or business unit;

• Roles and responsibilities that headquarters and business units are to play in the project;

• Resource availability in each location to support the project;

• Initial list of issues at the local, regional, and global levels that will have to be addressed;

• Estimated budget that will be required to carry out the project;

• Overall schedule for the international project;

• Estimated benefits at each level and location.

More important than each of these is the end product of political acceptance and commitment to the project. Why do all of this work now? After all, if management wants to do the project, then that is that. Not true. Starting an ill-defined project that impacts multiple locations and business units is just asking for continuing problems and headaches.