In addition to achieving the project objective, there are generally a range of project outcomes, both positive and negative. For example, the organisation may have purchased a technology for the project which is useful for other tasks; or through the changes implemented on the project people are freed up to do things they had not previously done.
It is good practice to predict what these could be. These predications can then be used to promote the project to people for whom the main project objective is not particularly attractive.
By definition projects are expected to finish. In most cases we have a good idea of when that will, or must, happen. At this stage you have not developed a rigorous project schedule, but you have decided what the key activities will be, and how much you are likely to be spending. You should be able to take a stab at the project end date.
If you are going to be presenting this information to people who are likely to treat this finish date as a commitment, make sure you add some time. This is another kind of contingency – in this case a time contingency as opposed to a cost contingency.
The reason why you add time is that projects seldom finish early (unless timeframes have been poorly estimated or you have done less than you expected). They are much more likely to run over time. We often identify tasks that we did not think of before we started, or we decide to do more than we had planned. (This is called 'scope creep' and is considered a no-no in sophisticated project management circles.)
