Wait a minute before you start with that project. Did you take time to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses? Did you check to see if there are any opportunities you can take advantage of or if there are any threats that you should steer clear of? If you haven’t, then you might as well be initiating this project with your eyes closed.
So what can you do to avoid running head on to a disaster with your project? There is one simple technique you can use to identify all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with it; a SWOT analysis.
A SWOT analysis is a technique you should practice during the initial project start-up phase. But, later if you come across any issues with the budget, deliverables or scheduling, you can still use a SWOT analysis to get your project back on the right track. In fact, it is a tool you should use during project design, implementation as well as evaluation.
SWOT is an acronym that stands for;
Strengths - Helpful attributes of the organization or the project that will help you achieve your objectives.
Weaknesses - Unsupportive attributes of the organization or the project that will obstruct the accomplishment of your objectives.
Opportunities – External factors or forces that will facilitate the accomplishment of your project goals.
Threats – External factors or forces that will damage your project and prevent you from achieving your goals.
Thus, a SWOT analysis allows you to assess the project’s capabilities (which will tell you what your project can or cannot do) and identify the obstructive factors that would work against the interest of the project. Knowing these, you can plan your project quite suitably and make sure that you achieve your target in the best way possible.
Let’s explore some reasons why SWOT is important in project management.
A SWOT analysis will help you gather information on four areas of your project; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Learning about your project’s strengths will help you find ways to minimize its weaknesses. And while being aware of its opportunities would let you take advantage of them during the growth of your project, being aware of threats would help you find clever ways to avoid them.
Being aware of the above discussed areas and implementing solutions to any issues that you identified will allow you to complete your project on time and within budget. Plus taking advantage of the opportunities and avoiding threats will further help you finish your project early on without paying any additional costs. In other words, a SWOT analysis will help you make sure that your project is completed successfully.
By performing a SWOT analysis during the initial phase of your project, you can determine the best course you should take. While you can consider the elements of the analysis as the base for the project plan, with the analysis you get, you will know where exactly to spend your efforts on and where to be on alert.
A SWOT analysis will let you identify the favorable and the unfavorable factors associated with your project. You can use this knowledge to invest your resources and efforts suitably in order to generate a better outcome.
A SWOT analysis will enable your team to identify the factors (such as the critical success factors) they should focus on. It will also help them distinguish between the positive and negative attributes of the project which will in turn enable them to formulate realistic project scopes and come up with appropriate strategies to gain project objectives.
In order to conduct a successful SWOT analysis, you need to analyze only the factors that are currently relevant; by taking into consideration ‘what-if’ situations or worst/best case scenarios, you won’t be able to get an accurate analysis. On the other hand, by sticking to a current analysis, you will be able to come up with more useful, relevant and precise strategies. At the same time it would play to your advantage, if you share it with a team who can contribute their knowledge to boost the analyzing and strategizing processes.
Of course, if you have the appropriate SWOT diagram, all you have to do is starting your analysis. Creating a SWOT analysis is not a very difficult task, especially now with the availability of diagram tools such as Creately. It is an app where you would be able to find tons of SWOT diagram templates that would help you start your analysis right away.
Go get your SWOT analysis done right now before you proceed any further with your project!
Misty Jhones