Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Would love to hear experiences with Project Kick off Meetings from the members .
Have you seen them go as expected ? Set the scene , give an overview of the project, take down questions and actions, scope gets more clarity
Have you seen them go nasty or pear shaped with a key stakeholders missed out or not happy ? scope gets murky? You come out of the room thinking "Why did I get this project?" Saving Changes...
Satish SharmaCertified SAP S4Hana 1909 Financials Expert| FreelanceNew Delhi, India
Deepesh, in real life experiences, its very important to kick start a project and setting off a Kick Off meeting.
Its a project norm, and especially for large and critical projects, Project Kick off meeting is a must. Importantly Kick Off meeting is the first connect between the project sponsor, the steering committee and the project team members and all other stakeholders.
In a typical kick off meeting, Project Sponsor, addresses the audience with the key objectives they are expecting out of the deliverables of the project.
It sets out the project charter and a formal announcement of the project start.
most of the cases, a broad ground rule is established. Resources deployment is initiated and project manager is introduced to the teams.
Al this is real life experience of the project management life cycle.
Though having faced situations where the kick off meeting happened without participation from the top management, saw issues of non alignment of functional users, delay in starting the requirement workshops, not buying in on alternative solutions for complex project issues, all have serious impact on project schedule and caused inevitable delays. Saving Changes...
Thirukkumaran NTProject Deputy Manager| Adani Gas LtdCoimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Preparing for your project kickoff meeting is only half the work. You must also establish an atmosphere of leadership and communication.
The kickoff meeting for a new project is your best opportunity to energize the group and establish a common purpose toward completing the work. I have found that a great kickoff is the result of good planning. After you have done your project preparation work, you need to plan for an effective meeting.
I have developed a set of tactics that I use to set the tone for the meeting. They help me stay organized, establish my leadership, and begin molding the individual project participants into a team Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
The key is only one: perform project stakeholder process. After do that you must plan the meeting. That is the key. Any other thing will not work. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Sergio is right, everything starts with understanding who the stakeholders are, what their interests are and how they can support / hinder the project. A comprehensive kickoff is preceeded by a lot of preparation with key stakeholders, and contains the why (vision, benefits - for whom), what (outputs), when (schedule), who (team, orgchart, R&R) and how (project standards). So the main kickoff should be at the end of the 1st planning cycle.
It should end with everyone energetic, motivated and enabled to contribute. Saving Changes...
Agree with the sentiments above. As you're creating your deck of materials to show at the Project Kickoff, you must touch base with stakeholders if you're able to get a sense of what their expectations are, what they think is in-scope, out of scope etc. You don't want to be surprised the day of with someone exclaiming they didn't know that x,y,z was part of the scope.
My general approach to Project Kickoffs is this: they are mandatory and must rehash the contract and scope details of the project. 99% of the time the audience is not who helped construct the contract and scope details so being very specific, at a high level, is important. In addition to this, I often have a kickoff for the overall stakeholders with minimal slides to get the job done, and then host an additional meeting for the technical team to review the deeper details of the scope and start to delineate a path forward.
Very important, get their verbal acknowledgement of scope etc. during the meeting and send the slides out after the meeting confirming the teams understanding. I've gone back many times afterwards to re-point people to the kickoff slide scope. Best of luck! Saving Changes...
As Thomas W. commented, the kickoff meetings was the end of the first planning cycle.
Based in my last projects participations, usually, we worked hard before with all the different stakeholders, then, there aren't surprises during the meeting.
We used the meeting as a Green Light to said to all the organization, we are ready. Then usually is like a "party", we did a presentation, a small talk from the leaders of the different teams, we did some Team Building activities.
Usually, people loved it because all different members from business to IT feel that they are part of something big and great that we are going to do together.
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2 replies by Efrain Paca and Liana Underwood
Feb 17, 2017 10:42 PM
Efrain Paca
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My experience comes from the implementation of social projects.
So. The beginning of a social project is very crowded, expected by the beneficiaries and a moment of joy.
But to achieve all, the structured, systematic and consensual process was passed on to all stakeholders. As Thomas mentions, stakeholders will first be convinced of, Why the project will be carried out?, What is the product, service or outcome?, When it completes each milestone?, Who will execute them, and finally,How the policies, procedures and standards will be executed?.
Feb 18, 2017 9:40 AM
Liana Underwood
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Great way to think of it - a green light. We also used to do what they call 'Scope Finalization" which included organizational readiness.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
The Kick-Off meeting in Construction Projects is a meeting between the our team and the client's to discuss major milestone dates and/or any other issues and then break the ground. Saving Changes...
Efrain PacaFunctional Manager| WORLD VISION ECUADORRiobamba, Ecuador
Feb 17, 2017 3:02 PM
Replying to Mayte Mata Sivera
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As Thomas W. commented, the kickoff meetings was the end of the first planning cycle.
Based in my last projects participations, usually, we worked hard before with all the different stakeholders, then, there aren't surprises during the meeting.
We used the meeting as a Green Light to said to all the organization, we are ready. Then usually is like a "party", we did a presentation, a small talk from the leaders of the different teams, we did some Team Building activities.
Usually, people loved it because all different members from business to IT feel that they are part of something big and great that we are going to do together.
My experience comes from the implementation of social projects.
So. The beginning of a social project is very crowded, expected by the beneficiaries and a moment of joy.
But to achieve all, the structured, systematic and consensual process was passed on to all stakeholders. As Thomas mentions, stakeholders will first be convinced of, Why the project will be carried out?, What is the product, service or outcome?, When it completes each milestone?, Who will execute them, and finally,How the policies, procedures and standards will be executed?. Saving Changes...
The Kick-Off meeting in Construction Projects is very essential as it is a joint meeting between the project team and all the stakeholders involved to discuss major milestone dates and/or any other issues and then break the ground. Saving Changes...
As Thomas W. commented, the kickoff meetings was the end of the first planning cycle.
Based in my last projects participations, usually, we worked hard before with all the different stakeholders, then, there aren't surprises during the meeting.
We used the meeting as a Green Light to said to all the organization, we are ready. Then usually is like a "party", we did a presentation, a small talk from the leaders of the different teams, we did some Team Building activities.
Usually, people loved it because all different members from business to IT feel that they are part of something big and great that we are going to do together.
Great way to think of it - a green light. We also used to do what they call 'Scope Finalization" which included organizational readiness. Saving Changes...
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