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o descend gently.

I wish you could have been with us on that bright, sunny Saturday on the 50-yard line of the football field in Paradise High School in California. Watching from the sidelines were my proud parents, hopeful buddies, and one very anxious sister, Cheryl.

I assembled HALO 1 on its launch pad, filled the capsule with water, carefully loaded the unaware guppies, sealed the nose cone with Scotch tape, and began the countdown.

10-9-8-7-6… (Action: Light the fuse)

5-4-3-2-1 (Action: Stand back)

Lift off!

HALO 1 shot up like a rocket, leaving a trail of smoke. It should have reached 2,000 feet, but halfway up it broke apart, the parachute failed, and the passenger capsule came plummeting down towards the goalposts. I rushed to the end zone with my portable water- filled recovery van (which was actually a Chinese food takeout container). Fortunately, the capsule fell onto soft grass, unbroken.

But half of the water was gone from the capsule and my intrepid volunteers were twisted into shapes few tiny fish ever experience. My scientific conclusion was that guppies are not designed for the unexpected 3-G force of takeoff (at least not without training).

I ripped off the Scotch tape that sealed the passenger capsule and dumped the fish into the recovery van. When they sank to the bottom, my heart sank with them. Oh no! There goes my rocket career.

But a subtle fin flicker suggested they were not dead, but were merely unconscious. I discovered that by gently blowing on them, dipping them into water, blowing and dipping, blowing and dipping back and forth, they began to wiggle and slowly regained consciousness.

I wrote a story about the experience for Model Rocket News that gained wide attention and convinced me to pursue an aerospace engineering degree at the University of Washington, as part of the plan to further my budding rocket career. (See Figure 1.2.)

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FIGURE 1.2 The Dramatic Launch of HALO 1

Preserved for Posterity I would like to say Minnie and Mickey escaped unharmed. Unfortunately, Minnie gained a permanent kink in her spine that caused her to spiral downward and hit bottom whenever she swam. For the rest of his life, Mickey swam level, but only in tight ¾-inch concentric circles.

They are still around, well-preserved in a small glass bottle, much like Egyptian mummies. To commemorate their historic flight and contribution to the world of rocketeering, someday I will donate these brave pioneers to the Schmidtsonian Institute for future generations to admire.

In future chapters, we will cover other episodes of my unusual Rocket Man story, and share the lessons learned along the way.

Different Contexts But Similar Issues After earning my BS in engineering at Washington and then an MBA at Harvard, I took a job as a Program Planner in the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, DC, where I learned how to orchestrate strategic plans.

After three years of government work, I became an international development advisor. For several years, I trained project leaders in over 20 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East to design projects that improve the lives of the rural poor.

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That is where I mastered the power of this systems approach that has become the basis of my life's work with clients.

After several years of international development work, I switched my consulting practice to serve corporate, government, research, and nonprofit organizations. People in these organizations also struggled to get projects off the ground efficiently. They candidly shared their thoughts and feelings about their projects, such as:

“We plan, but our plans fall apart when we try to execute them.”

“We have good ideas, but cannot seem to implement them.”

“The goals keep changing.”

“Teamwork is lacking and it is tough to get people moving in the same direction.”

“Nasty, unexpected surprises derail us and we spend too much time fire-fighting.”

“Opportunities evaporate because we do not move fast enough.”

“We are more than frustrated!”

The last comment came from a busy manager who was clearly angry because it took weeks to design a project that could have been done in days. Back then, I was certain my approach could help, but at the time it was geared toward the needs of development audiences.

So, I adapted it to meet business needs and began teaching it at the UCLA Extension Technical Management Program. For over three decades, thousands of project managers, mid-career professionals, and technical leaders who attended over 60 of my Strategic Project Management courses there proved the system worked by applying it to projects large and small and getting the results they sought. Some diverse examples:

A global nonprofit health organization needing to create an enterprise management system to serve widely diverse users worldwide.

A satellite television provider needing more sophisticated ways to combat identity theft and fraud.

An industrial company reinventing itself after a competitor's technology breakthrough threatened their main product.

A specialized industrial software company seeking to grow their business.

A nuclear scientist organizing experts at national research laboratories to recover radioactive materials that could fall into the wrong hands.

A visionary entrepreneur needing to design a Minimum Viable Product to secure substantial investor funding.

A social service agency manager caring for mentally and physically handicapped residents needing to solve the root cause of mysterious injuries to their residents.

A department manager in a nonprofit organization needing help to set up a Project Management Office (PMO).

A group of video-game fanatics needing to scale their business to support the rapidly growing popularity of their new online game.

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A national research laboratory needing a long-range research strategy to integrate renewable energy into the national electrical grid.

These very different projects shared certain commonalities. None of them were simple or straightforward. They were all highly visible and the goals were important. Resources were tight, there were plenty of unknowns, and the pressure was on to deliver results. Sound similar to your projects in any way?

Coming up with the right solution was much like navigating a large maze you could walk through. Think of a time you worked your way through a maze. You knew the general direction to head toward, but not the best path to get there. That's because you were at ground level and could not easily see above the walls of the maze to understand the larger structure. As a result, you often had to backtrack through blind alleys that were dead ends, wasting time and getting frustrated. But if you could begin by elevating your perspective and get a bird's-eye view, your path to reach the end point would be much easier. So too is it with projects.

You might wonder how the same system that helped developing countries improve their education system, reduce child mortality, build an economy, grow more crops, and reduce poverty could work in very different business, technical, and cultural contexts. The reason is because the basic underlying issues and solution principles we will cover in this book are essentially the same for all situations.

Because the systems thinking concepts are universal, the potential applications of the approach are virtually limitless. Ken Howell, a Sony Electronics champion of this method, says, “Show me something this does not apply to.”

The approach you are about to discover will give you the insights you have always sensed you needed and were missing from other approaches you have tried. Along the way, I will make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Preview the Solution Tools The Logical Framework Approach (LFA), is a design methodology that facilitates project planning at a broader, more integrated, and more strategic level than traditional project planning processes. The Logical Framework Approach helps us gain a clearer understanding of how the project affects, and is affected by, factors outside the project scope. This is what we mean by systems thinking.

We will use the term Logical Framework Approach or LFA to describe the overall approach, and the term LogFrame or matrix to describe the project plans this approach produces.

Present design requires first identifying:

Why the project is being performed,

The impact it will have,

How to achieve it,

How to know it is successful,

What the risks are, and

What is required for success from outside the scope of the project.

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When this higher-level analysis is completed, the tasks and resources needed for execution become more understandable.

This approach features four sequential steps and questions, which build on each other. Following this approach reduces the tendency to jump to task lists too early. This section offers a brief overview of the approach, which is detailed in subsequent chapters. My intention for you is when you finish this book, you will have both the knowledge and desire to apply this system to your own important projects.

How It Began The LFA was originally developed at the management consulting firm Practical Concepts Incorporated (PCI) to help the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) plan, implement, and evaluate hundreds of projects in their global multibillion-dollar foreign aid portfolio.

At PCI, I collaborated with the LFA development team. Later I taught project teams in 24 developing countries in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East to apply this approach. Then I shifted my business to serve corporations, nonprofits, national research laboratories, and government agencies.

A Simple Interactive Matrix Structure We are all familiar with the five Ws (and an H) used to plan our projects: Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How. The basic Logical Framework shown in Figure 1.3 serves to visually integrate these elements into a single design canvas.

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FIGURE 1.3 The Basic Logical Framework Matrix

This compact format can summarize and communicate a complex project in one to three pages.

The term Logical Framework Approach describes its essential components:

Logical It connects various project elements together using an underlying common- sense natural language called If-Then construction.

Framework It is structured as an 4×4 interactive matrix in which each cell captures project information in a specific, organized, and interlocking manner that is easily communicated.

Approach It brings together concepts from science and management. This flexible design approach is driven by Four Critical Strategic Questions (below) that propel your thinking and result in an integrated plan aligned with strategic objectives.

Effective project design starts by addressing these questions, the answers to which fit into various cells in the LogFrame matrix:

1. What results are we trying to achieve, and why?

2. How do we measure success?

3. What other conditions must exist?

4. How do we get there?

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The answers to Question #1 summarize the project's three main Objectives (Goal, Purpose, and Outcomes,) in the first column. Question #2 identifies the Success Measures and Verifications for each Objective in the middle two columns. Answering Question #3 fills in the Assumptions and risk factors in the last column. Question #4 summarizes the Inputs (tasks and resources), which occupy the bottom row. We will define and cover each of these elements in detail in later chapters.

By working through these questions, and organizing the results into the matrix, you create the structural foundation of your strategy. But this is not a “box-filling” exercise. The four questions guide the team dialogue and analysis, while the matrix captures the results of your thinking process in a way that is both strategic and scientific. This approach works for projects of all sizes and types.

Universal Applicators The LogFrame has been called “the multi-bladed Swiss knife of Strategy” because it performs so many useful functions, serving as a:

Project design canvas

Project justification tool

Solutions discovery tool

Experiment design tool

Strategy clarification tool

Communications tool

Alignment tool

Team building tool

Responsibility clarification tool

Baseline reference tool

Impact evaluation tool

Process improvement tool

What triggers the need for a LogFrame? Virtually any problem, opportunity, event, or situation including these:

New project starting with knowing little more than the end Goal.

A list of Goals taken from a strategic plan or SWOT analysis.

Finding a nasty surprise making you pivot your plan.

That tough problem that needs a well-thought-out solution.

Teams needing sharper focus and better coordination.

Determining the feasibility of an idea.

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Business processes gone awry and needing to be reined in.

Discovering an opportunity to exploit before the window closes.

Encountering change that demands a response.

Uncovering a promising idea.

Plugging a performance gap.

Testing a wild hunch that needs testing.

The power of the LogFrame is not in its matrix format per se, but in how its structure and embedded internal logic force team members to think through all of the critical issues as they develop solutions.

Notes on Terminology and Formatting There are seven terms that have a specific meaning when used in the context of a LogFrame, and these are capitalized for clarity: Goal, Objectives, Purpose, Outcomes, Inputs, Success Measures (or Measures), and Assumptions. When used in a general sense, these terms are not capitalized. In addition, the terms Why, What, Where, When, Who, and How are also capitalized and italicized when they refer to specific sections in the Logical Framework matrix. The word Vision is always capitalized.

The heart of designing projects with the LogFrame approach involves identifying causal relationships between various project Objectives. The words If and Then are capitalized and in italics to highlight when such relationships.

I'll use the terms project strategy and project design somewhat interchangeably in what follows, as well as projects and strategic initiatives.

People ask whether the book title Strategic Project Management refers to the management of the most strategic projects and special initiatives, or whether it means taking a strategic approach to any project. The answer is that it is both. Certainly the most critical projects demand a strategic approach, but even the simplest projects exist within a larger context and can benefit by viewing them through a strategic lens as well.

Universal Applications This methodology is neither complicated nor abstract. Although it is simple and straightforward, applying it does take effort. But once you get the hang of it, you will save and reduce headaches.

That completes the brief Logical Framework Approach overview. We will discuss this in greater depth when we get to Chapter 4. Then, in Chapters 5–8, we take a deep dive into each of the four questions, so you have a complete understanding of a flexible power tool that belongs in the toolbox of every knowledge worker and project leader.

But before we do that, let us first set the groundwork in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 by exploring the LogFrame's most essential underlying principles—those of logic and those of language. My intent is to show you how this system works, but more importantly, for you to understand why it works.

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Review Key Points 1. Strategic Project Management provides more flexible ways to think, plan, and act, and

is a must-have skill for everyone in these uncertain times.

2. Initial planning is the most critical part of any project (NASA's Rule #15). Clearly identify Why the project is needed before deciding How it will be done.

3. The three vital factors for smooth initial planning are a common language, a common process, and an organized framework.

4. The LogFrame gives you a competitive edge to succeed in almost every type of project by reducing the gap between strategy development and execution.

5. Your ability to turn an idea into a well-designed and actionable project provides you with a potent competitive advantage. And this book gives you the keys to gain that advantage.

Coming Up Next The need for committed and capable project leaders like you who can think strategically and turn ideas into action has never been higher. In the next chapter, we will introduce a design principle missing from most other project design methods. We are going to build a project strategy using cause-and-effect logic chains by “starting with the end in mind,” and working backwards to identify each step required to ensure the project can achieve the impact intended.