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CEPM501: Organizing the Project and Its Components Cornell University College of Engineering

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Tool: The Clear/Clear Ideal The ideal is for every project to remain in the top-right clear/clear quadrant on this graph, which shows a scale of relative ambiguity from 1 (vague) to 10 (clear) for project methods, on the X axis, and project outcomes, on the Y axis.

To achieve this, you can keep this graph firmly in your mind. Use it during status meetings and in conversations with stakeholders. Remember that the projects that are financially successful remain in the ideal clear/clear quadrant. Ask yourself at the beginning of each project and throughout its life cycle:

• How clear are we on the outcomes we need to achieve? • How clear are we on the methods we’re going to use to accomplish our work? • What are some of the known unknowns? • What are some of the unknown unknowns? • What are some areas of uncertainty? • What answers/information do we need to have, or what do we need to determine

in order to reduce ambiguity?