Following on from Alan's excellent advise I would also add:
First project meeting is a big opportunity to share your plan with the team members for leading the project to a successful competion. It is important that everyone must be on the same page.
You need to do this -
- Set proper expectations and establish guidelines that will help you complete the project on time and within budget.
- Develop the project goals and deliverables
- Identify the project team members and define their responsibities
- Develop the project Assumptions List
- Develop a preliminary project plan
- Define key success criteria
Now you are ready to schedule the project kick-off meeting with agenda
Hope this helpful
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Huw EvansSenior Manager, Projects and Partnerships| Vicinity CentresMount Waverley, Vic, Australia
I just wrote an article on exactly this question last week:
I have seen so called "kick-off" meetings at various points in the early project life cycle so it really depends on what you are trying to do and the content will be determined by the documents that you are trying to produce for example;
Project Initiation Phase
Is it a "scoping session" involving key stakeholders, where the details around the project scope and who will be involved ie.e key project resources is determined. Usually resulting in a project brief or charter and then moving into the "Planning kick off".
Project Planning Phase
Is it a "Planning kick off" where you key stakeholders and project resources together to discuss how and when and who will deliver what in the project resulting in a project management plan.
Project Execution Phase
Is it a "Team kick off" where the plan has already been developed and this is the first time the whole team has got together to be briefed on the plan. Results in "team charter", roles & responsibilities, work packages etc.
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Rakesh TrivediSenior Project Manager| IT CompanyIndore, Mp, India
Project kick off meeting is rendezvous for broadcasting about your projects and support you will require from other teams or groups. Generally you call all your team members and other support group like HR/ADMIN/Infrastructure/Network/Finance or accounts etc and Internal Stakeholders. It starts with introduction and then apprised with goals and objective of your project and ask them for there continuous support during the course of the project.
You also should prepare the checklist before attending the meeting.
The above one was internal kickoff for meeting and other aspects is Kick off meeting with client which is also critical part which starts with Introduction of each members, there roles & responsibilities and matters relating to the project.
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Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I agree with what's been written. I'd also use the time to establish ground rules for the project team in terms of behaviour and expectations. For example, we'll always respond to emails within 24 hours, we'll communicate openly, we'll have team meetings once a week, and so on. Saving Changes...
JANICE POWELL BRYANTDirector, Project and Portfolio Management| Clemson UniversityClemson, SC, United States
Yes, I always try to make sure everyone understands the "who, what, where, when, why, how" of the project when they walk out of the kick off meeting.
I would also use the kick-off meeting as an opportunity for the team to brainstorm risks and review lessons learnt from similar projects and agree within the team how best to ensure that issues on those projects are not replicated. Early engagement and inclusion of the team in contributing to risk analysis can help bring out risks that may otherwise not be considered and helps embed a culture of team members raising risks throughout the project (rather than keeping them to themselves which some are wont to do!). It can also help to bring out some of the concerns the team may have so that you are able to address them upfront.
Sometimes kick-off meetings can be quite "dry" and tedious so I would also try to find a way to make it interactive and fun so that the team are energised from day 1 and all bought in to what the project is trying to achieve and in agreement as to how they are going to deliver to expectations. Saving Changes...
Paula SzyjkaBusiness Analyst Sr| Legg Mason Technology ServicesOwings Mills, Md, United States
At project kick off, team should understand goal of project, benefit of project, resources needed from initiation to deployment, who the project sponsors are, who the customers are, and how implementing it will make their lives better. Saving Changes...
Elyse NielsenSenior Project Manager| Ascension Health Information ServicesHaines City, Fl, United States
Great Topic, thanks for bringing it up! Everyone has good contributions, and some may need to be spread out a bit to other meetings.
The one thing I would add is to start to relay what done looks like. When we have completed this project we will be able to ... It is key from the very beginning for everyone to understand the outcome and what it will look like when we are completed.
Hope this helps,
Elyse
My PM Blog Saving Changes...
