f widgets per worker by 10% by June, 200x Objective: Establish programmed account sales plan by Q3. Hire managers Objective: Train X% of our personnel on Y by March 200x. In most companies, a material capital expenditure requires some form of needs- analysis, projected outcome, and project proposal. Surveying customers and functional groups such as departments or teams is crucial to preparing such documents. In the needs-analysis phase, it is important to keep the discussion focused on the customer's situation, goals, and challenges. It is especially important to listen for a manager's dissatisfaction with a current manner of achieving a goal. The focus should be on understanding objectives and gauges of success; it is best not to suggest solutions at this point. In interviewing each customer group, it is helpful to develop a needs analysis matrix of objectives and problems that video communication might solve, and note issues related to time, distance, teamwork, and collaboration. It is important to listen closely when discussing project management or heightened demands on scarce personnel. Another area to explore is communication difficulties between isolated workgroups (headquarters and the field, marketing and engineering, engineering and service). Any obstacle that relates to getting the job (e.g., training and retooling) done over distance is a potential project driver. Note that there are two kinds of objectives: mandatory and desirable. Mandatory objectives, as Harry Green points out in the Irwin Handbook of Telecommunications Management, "Are the conditions that an alternative must satisfy to be acceptable." On the other hand, Green defines desirable objectives as "The conditions we would like the alternative to satisfy, but their lack will not disqualify." For example, it might be mandatory that a video communication system interoperate with an existing system at a customer's location. A desirable objective might be that establishing a connection would be as easy as dialing a telephone, when a slightly 