Scope or the lack of
At work at the moment, I’ve been working with some guys far more technically wired than me on a project to develop an internal IT knowledge management solution. We’ve decided to go with SharePoint and since then the project has morphed about five times to be a far more all-encompassing IT Intranet solution. In my head it now includes add-ons for tasks, leave management, and a number of other components that will make up a nice little dashboard of easy to read information to be utilized by the IT team nationally.
I stepped into a meeting today with some of my key stakeholders, full of the usual bravado, confident that I knew what I wanted and confident that they would see my vision the way I saw it, tell me I was the man and give the project the green light. Without going into much detail, things didn’t go to plan and I got well and truly roasted. I had no clear defined scope of the project and the little bit I did have was open ended with no clear objectives and milestones.
After speaking with a few of those present at the meeting, it seems I may have lost the audience in the first 10 seconds when I described how the project had started off as X, morphed into Y, before morphing a third time to Z. All the while becoming more complex, involving a greater reach and broadening the scope. For a project with no budget, this was never going to be good news.
I’ve been thinking about today’s meeting a bit tonight; what I should do differently for next time, the lessons I need to take away, and it got me thinking. The reason I decided to pen this blog tonight was because I was able to draw some similarities with my experience today in the work environment, to my own experiences with malchieb.com. I realized that I actually haven’t determined a clear scope or vision for the blog, and perhaps because of that, I’m struggling for content. Do I want it to be an IT/Work blog? Not really, that’s boring shit, and I couldn’t help but let loose with real world scenarios that would see me out the door.
Should I just write about controversial topics? I actually would love to, but I can’t, because most of you know who I am – I would rather save that type of stuff for those summer nights on the Gin and Tonics. Controversy is not something I really want hanging around on the internet for the rest of my days.
Sports? I love sports, but I’m not really a sports writer, I’d end up just pumping out articles about how Lance Armstrong and Roger Federer are the greatest of all time. That type of rhetoric has been done to death by sports writers far more eloquent than I. Besides, I think sports writers need to be trained in writing properly; I think I got 60 percent in my final High School English exam.
I think if I asked myself what my scope is for my blog, I’d probably answer you with this.
I want to write about things that people want to read about.
My first post on this iteration of Malchieb.com (keep in mind this is the 2nd or 3rd attempt at it) flowed so freely and easily because it was something that I remembered so well and had me smiling and half crying the whole way through writing it. I really appreciate the feedback and kind words I have received about that post.
And so I put it to you guys, reading this, what you want to see me write about? Maybe then I can define a scope and stick to it.
Leave a comment below, I love getting them and it makes me pumped to keep writing.
Just keep writing about the world as seen through your eyes mate. I love reading all your posts. Keep it up!
I agree with you Daz, regardless of topic or opinion I enjoy reading the posts mate.
What you wrote about Pras and that day in October was brilliant because it resonated! If you keep writing about what you feel passionate about it will resonate with other people too! Just keep writing — some stuff will work and some won’t — but that is the way life it! Some stuff works and some does not!