While the strategic road-map focuses primarily on business model, execution priorities and must-wins. Fact is when a lot of talk is happening around getting things right and implementing the project management principles; we lose some crucial time during this process. Hence, for a successful project importance of a good start becomes essential here.
Here we go with 10 successful and tested tips we should do before work begins on any project!
1) Hold a multi stakeholder meeting - The purpose is to get everyone on the same page. Share the project plan with the stakeholders and all the departments concerned, they can be (Pre-sales, Sales, Solutions, Project Management, Products, Services, Accounts, Infrastructure, HR and more as deemed suitable). Make sure your project presentation is a forum for discussion where the focus is to determine things like; what kind of decisions would be taken by whom, what's expected from them, actions they are responsible for, their detailed accountability, and the time lines they need to respond with the solutions.
2) Measure the scope of the project - The scope of the project is the first thing that has to be determined. Core being, what is the problem the project is going to answer? And be prepared that the scope of work can change throughout the project course, as different client stakeholders may ask for more inclusions in the final deliverable, so the solution must remain agile.
3) Identify your critical people and key team members - This is a must have list of team members that need to be in the project. Great project managers always retain their best talents by not allocating them on bench. Once a project is over smart managers give time off to their key players and investment on their up-skill or cross-skill or from a variety of options as needed. And once the new project is locked allocates team members the jobs they are specialized in.
4) Collaborate with resource allocation, talent acquisition & talent management teams - Meet the human resources team to discuss the plan to design the project staffing plans. If possible, put your best manager on this assignment.(a) Sync with the resource team for utilization of the bench resources and deploying them in your project. You need to be really very quick here in identifying and blocking them for your project.(b) The next important thing is to meet the recruitment team and give them your hiring plans, which includes:- number of hiring's to be done, budget for the positions, timeline for the hires and more details as required like details of full-time employees, contractors, part-time staff or specialized freelance support.(c) Another important task is to meet your HR partner to discuss the commitment level of the resources blocked for the project duration. This could prevent and avoid situation if any resource is not available due to their holiday plans, personal commitments or long leave plans.
5) Start the timer - Identify timeline required for the project to execute. Arrive at deadlines and milestones that are required to accomplish the progress during different stages of the project. Starting immediately everything should be discussed with a timeline tag on it.
6) The cost and the budgeting part - Be sure to budget well by taking into account all kinds of costs starting from human resources, travel or other incidental expenses, cost of hardware, budget for Web Design And SEO Company, software and consulting fees. Try managing both tangible and intangible cost tracking sheets to measure the cost and efforts going in the project.
7) Get the tools right - Before you get to know that your team may inquire about tools they need to get the job done. It is better to have them defined and delivered before the start of the project, starting from software licenses, hardware and testing equipments, ORM Services, collaboration tools etc as deemed suitable for the project.
8) Breakdown the project into phases with checkpoints - It is easier to manage projects when they are managed well, even the most complex ones, this can be done by breaking it into phases with periodic checkpoints, having review mechanisms in place to confirm that the project remains on its course and is on its way to the solution it is supposed to.
9) Hold a project kickoff meeting - A kickoff meeting is a very effective way to bring project stakeholders together under one roof to discuss the project. The stage can be used for discussing the goals, solutions expected from the project, roles and responsibilities, checklists, commitments, data sharing rules and etc, the list goes endless, basically anything and everything operational related to the project and the team falls under this. With that in mind, this needs to be as clear as possible and project team involved need to be aware of who is doing what.
10) Identify major risks - The easiest way is to have a project meeting with all the team members and ask them only to come with the problems and factor it out as drivers for identifying the risks and possible mitigation. Truth is whether you plan or not risks will eventually occur by their virtue and will pose threats to your project. Choice is ours, if we want to counter the damage and limit the magnitude of the disaster.
CONCLUSION - This article does not talk about any project management initiatives as there are great theories around to handle that. The article only encompasses and concentrates on the aspects of a great start without cutting corners from project management guidelines.
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