Just learn it ep2 | Project Initiation

This is my note from the course: Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project.

• Goals: what you’re trying to achieve; ex, increase revenues through a new service offering by 5%.
• Scope: work that needs to happen to complete the project (identify which is in-scope, which is out-of-scope).
• Deliverables: products and services that will be created.
• Success criteria: standards to measure how successful a project was in reaching its goals.
• Stakeholders: people who both have an interest in, and are affected by, the completion and success of a project.
• Resources: budget, people, materials.

Key questions to answer before initiating a project

• What is the end goal?
• What are the expected deliverables and schedule?
• What is the budget?
• Who are the stakeholders?

Cost-benefit analysis

List out all expected values (benefits) and compare them to costs.

Benefit

• What value will this project create?
• How much money could this project save the organization?
• How much money will it bring in from existing customers?
• How much time will be saved?
• How will the user experience be improved?
• There are also intangible benefits, such as customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, employee productivity, brand perception, etc.

Cost

• How much time will people have to spend on this project?
• What will be the one-time cost?
• Are there any ongoing cost?
• What about long-term cost?
• For the intangible costs, might the project put customer retention, employee satisfaction at risk?

Return-on-investment (ROI)

%difference between expected financial gain and upfront and ongoing costs comparing to the costs.

Goals and deliverables

• Goals: desired outcomes (products or services that are crated for the customer, client, or project sponsor) + a way to achieve them.
• Deliverables: what get produced or presented at the end of a task, event, or process which help quantify and realize the impact of the project.

SMART goals

• Specific: what to accomplish? Why good? Who is involved? Where should the goal be delivered? To what degree (requirements and concerns)?
• Measurable: metrics and benchmarks (last-year performance).
• Attainable: can it reasonably be reached? how can it be accomplised?
• Relevant: does the goal make sense? is the goal worthwhile? is it the right time?
• Time-bound: has a deadline and clear time frame.

Example

Office Green will raise their overall customer retention rate by 10% by the end of the year by implementing a new Operations & Training plan for the Plant Pals service.

• Specific: Office Green will implement an Operations & Training plan that will improve on existing customer service standards and boost efficiency.
• Measurable: The goal includes a metric of a 10% increase in retention.
• Attainable: They have a year to reach this goal and many former and existing customers are interested in the new service. It has the potential to help them keep customers who may be thinking about leaving for a landscaper with more services.
• Relevant: Increasing customer retention can lead to more sales, which supports the overall project goal of a 5% revenue increase.
• Time-bound: The deadline is at the end of the year.

Object & Key results (OKRs)

• Objective: define what needs to be achieved and describe desired outcomes.
• Key results: the measurable outcomes that define when the objectives have been met.
• OKRs: combination of a goal and a metric to determine a measurable outcome.

Project scope

• Scope: an agreed upon understanding as to what is included or excluded from a project which provides the boundaries for the project containing budget, timeline, and resources.
• Where did this project come from?
• What is the project expected to achieve?
• Why is it needed?
• What does the project sponsor have in mind?
• Who approves the final results?

Stakeholders

• How did you arrive at the decision to do this project?
• Did the request originate from someone or other stakeholders?
• Who will approve the scope for the project?

Goals

• What is the reason for doing this project?
• What isn’t working in the current approach?
• What is the end of this project?

Deliverables

• What component or feature is being updated / created?
• What exactly needs to be revised?

Resources

• What materials, equipment, and people will be needed?
• Will we need to hire someone?
• Will we need to attain a paperwork before starting the project?

Budget

• What is the budget for this project?
• Is it fixed or flexible?

Schedule

• How much time do we have to complete the project?
• When does the project need to be completed?

Flexibility

• What is the highest priority: shifting the deadline, sticking to the budget, and making sure the result meets all the quality targets?

For a certain project, make sure you understand the who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Tasks categorized by scope

• In-scope: tasks that are included in the project plans and contribute to the project’s goal.
• Out-of-scope: those that are not in-scope.
• Scope creep: unexpected changes and uncontrollable factors in a form of new details or ideas that could impact the project success, such as internal (product improvement, process changes), and external (customer requests, environment shifts, and changes in technology).

How to avoid scope creep

• Make project plans visible — what’s going to be produced, what resources are required, how much it will cost, and how much time it will take.
• Get clarity on project requirements.
• Set grand rules and expectations for stakeholder improvement.
• Create plan for dealing with out-of-scope request — setup change control process.
• Document requirements and development plan.
• Collect costs for out-of-scope work.

Even the most minor change can mean major risk to your project’s success.

Manage changes to a project’s scope

It relates to 3 components, namely scope, cost, and time. First and foremost, find out which is the top priority.

• add new feature -> scope changed -> if changing the budget is not allowed, extend the timeline instead.
• reduce the timeline but cannot increase the budget -> reduce scope.

Project success

• Launch: deliver the final result or the project to the client or user.
• Landing: measure the success of the project using the success criteria established at the outset of the project.

Sometimes, a project is successfully launched, but fail to be adopt in the implementation which is called launch and forget.

Success criteria

• Indicator determining whether the project was successful.
• Specific details of project goals, deliverables, requirements, and expectations.
• Standards by which the project will be judged.

When working on a project, the goal is not simply to launch it, but to land it.

Determine project success

• Identify the measurable aspects of the project.
• Get clarity from stakeholders on the project requirements and expectations.
• Include methods for how success will be measured, how often it is measured, and who’s responsible for measuring it.

Defining your success criteria should create greater alignment within the team and give everyone better visibility into how to achieve success.

Project roles

• Project sponsor: person who is accountable for the project and ensures the project delivers the agreed upon business benefits.
• Team members: people doing the work and making things happen.
• Customers: people who will get some value from a successfully landed project.
• Users: people who use the product produced by the project.
• Stakeholders: people who expect to benefit directly from the project completion.
• Project manager: person who plans, organizes, and oversees the whole project.

Things to consider

• How many people needed in each step of the project development?
• Which team members are needed and when?
• Are those experts already busy on other projects?

Stakeholder analysis

• Make a list of all stakeholders project inputs.
• Determine the level of interest and influence for each stakeholder.
• Assess stakeholders’ ability to participate and then find ways in involve them.

The influence may be measured from how much power a stakeholder has and how much this stakeholder’s actions affect the project outcome.

Example questions

• What are your most important priorities/goals?
• How will this initiative/project support you and your most important priorities?
• What role would you like to play within this initiative/project?
• Here’s how I plan to keep people informed; does that work for you?
• What can I clarify for you?
• What are your expectations? What would you like for the project to accomplish?
• What would success look like for you?
• Who else do you recommend I reach out to about this initiative?
• What information or insights do you have that might be challenging for me to find?
• Where do you see me getting support for this initiative? Facing resistance?
• What additional thoughts/questions do you have?

Power grid

• High influence, high interest: schedule regular meetings.
• High influence, low interest: provide high-level summaries and periodic updates.
• Low influence, high interest: communicate project progress and seek their feedback on the project plans, progress, and outcome.
• Low influence, low interest: share general updates.

Example of power grid. Reprinted from Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project

Steering committee is a collection of key stakeholders who have a high level of power and interest in a project.

RACI chart

Helps define roles and responsibilities for individuals or teams to ensure work gets done efficiently.

Example of RACI chart. Reprinted from Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project

Responsible

Who is responsible for completing this task? Consider these questions when determining who is responsible:

• Which department manages the work?
• Who should perform the work?

Accountable

Who is accountable if the task isn’t completed? Remember that only one person should be accountable for each task or deliverable. When deciding who is accountable, ask yourself:

• Who might delegate the task to another team member?
• Who makes final decisions about the task?
• Who should review the work to confirm it is complete?

Consulted

Who should be consulted for their insights, expertise, or strong opinions on the task? Here are a few questions to help identify whether someone should be consulted:

• Who can give feedback to responsible individuals to help them complete tasks?
• Who are the subject matter experts (SMEs) for the task?

Informed

Who should be kept informed about task progress or project decisions? Key questions to ask yourself include:

• Who is invested in task completion but not directly involved in the work?
• Who is affected by the project outcome?

Project resources

What are the things needed to acquire in order to complete the project?

• Budget: estimate of the amount of money a project will cost to complete including the cost of the people performing the work, services from any outside vendors, and tangible items purchased to complete the project.
• People: people who help execute the tasks of a project.
• Materials: items needed to help get the project done.
• Tools: aids that make it easier for a project manager or team to manage resources, organize work, track tasks, manage budgets, and collaborate with teammates.

Project documentation

Project proposal

a form of documentation that persuades a stakeholder to begin a project (desired goals and inputs).

Project charter

• contain all details of the project.
• define the project and its goals.
• outline what is needed to accomplish the goals.
• define the key details of the project.
• make clear that the benefits of the project outweight the costs of the projfect.

Example of project charter. Reprinted from Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project

Key components of a project charter

• introduction/project summary
• goals/objectives
• business case/benefits and costs
• project team
• scope
• success criteria
• major requirements or key deliverables
• budget
• schedule/timeline or milestones
• constraints and assumptions
• risks
• OKRs
• approvals