What's in a name? That naming your Intranet Project the
which we call a rose By any - wait for it - "Intranet
other word would smell as Project"! Often, so-called
sweet." "secret squirrel" names (where
one has to ferret out from
In this famous quote from Act II colleagues what Project Banana is
of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet tells all about) serve only to create
Romeo that a name is an an unnecessary air of mystique
artificial and meaningless (fit only for secret M&A
convention, and the fact he is a projects). They can also serve to
Montague and she a Capulet be divisive, by separating
(warring families) means nothing 'people in the know' from people
to their love. outside the immediate project
audience.
However, there is some strong
evidence from the UK's Cranfield The functional approach
University - and elsewhere - that
the name one gives a project does A functional name focuses on what
have a marked impact on the the intranet does (e.g. search,
behaviour and motivation of the find, access). This enjoys the
people involved. It may surprise same benefits as the direct
you, but the name you give to approach, but affords one a
your Intranet Project could well little more poetic license. What
be the most important decision about names like "Project
you make in the early stages of Connect" or "Project Gateway",
mobilisation! which serve to signal the core
"must have" requirements for the
The Direct Approach project?
There is an argument in faour of The conceptual approach
"Project Future Workplace".
There is a problem with the
direct or functional approaches; The abstract approach
Research from Cranfield has
demonstrated that people on The abstract approach deals with
projects tend to be very heavily how the project makes people
influenced in their actions by feel. For example, "Project
the name of the project itself. Bliss" (for happiness), "Project
If you call your project the Wizard" (for magic) or "Project
Intranet project, it is a working Pulse" (for fast-pacedness).
intranet (i.e. the technology) Although one world usually fails
that you will get. If your to capture all you are trying to
ambition was something much more achieve with an Intranet Portal,
visionary, such as a wholly new this approach can prove highly
way of working for your people, effective (particularly where
you are likely to be counter-cultural).
disappointed!
If all else fails
The conceptual name targets what
is achieved by the functionality, Nothing grabbed you so far? Well
rather than the functionality there is no saving you, then! I
itself. For example, if your suppose there are always the
company name was BigCo and your standard fallback options: names
purpose was seeking to get of greek or roman gods, names of
everyone in the company working planets, names of birds and names
together, you could call the of dances. These have the added
project "Project OneBigCo" or value that - if you spawn
"Project Unity". For the follow-on projects in a sequence
aforementioned new ways of - you have ready-made logical
working objective, you could use follow-on project titles.
Incidentally, "Project Mercury" why not check out my presentation
would be my recommendation for in the mobilisation section of my
planets or gods (as Mercury was (free to access) Intranet Portal
the roman god of communications). Guide.
For more ideas on project names,
About the Author:
David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.
Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.
Read more articles by:
David Viney
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
