I have seen different practices in organizations about conducting project kickoff meeting.
Some PMs conduct after creation of project plan, while others create after creating project charter, identifying stakeholders and before creating a project plan.
What are the pre-requisites for this meeting and when we should conduct it?
Sometimes it may happen that resources need to be hired for the project and need to conduct the meeting with few available resources. What is your opinion on this situation? Saving Changes...
ANEMU SIVARAMAKRISHNAManaging Director| Vision Engineers and SurveyorsSrikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, India
Kick-off meeting is the 1st meeting to be conducted after stakeholders for a particular package are finalized. The most important part of the meeting is Agenda. Depending on the clarity available at that time prepare the agenda and try to achieve respective goals in the meeting. Please note that it's not necessary to finalise everything in kick-off meeting but all the requirements are to be discussed and how to proceed further to be finalized; like it's not necessary to finalise project plan in kick-off meeting but discussion on this to be happen and the meeting to finalise the project plan is to be fixed and how the monitoring will be done to be finalized. Even if there is no clarity let the project kick-off meeting happen first and proceed further. If there's clarity then try to finalise the things in the meeting. It also depends on the size of project and package also.
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1 reply by Sonali Malu
May 30, 2017 6:10 AM
Sonali Malu
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Thank you for the reply..
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Eric SimmsSenior Program ManagerBaltimore, Maryland, United States
As Anemu says, the kickoff meeting’s agenda is very important. In particular, you need to know what you want to achieve with the kickoff meeting – then you’ll know the best time to hold the meeting.
For example, my current project spans multiple years, and involves resources from multiple divisions within my organization, as well as several large outside vendors. Since the project was so complex, the primary goals of our kickoff meeting was to make everyone aware of the project’s purpose and goals, and to answer any questions people had. We didn’t have a project plan finalized when we held the kickoff meeting.
Dear best time to conduct kick-off meeting is after project charter development and stakeholders identification.
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1 reply by Sonali Malu
Jun 05, 2017 5:19 AM
Sonali Malu
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Thank you Nian for your inputs!
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Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Also worth mentioning that perhaps there will be multiple kickoff's based on resources that engage later in the project. Also, prior to each phase.
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1 reply by Sonali Malu
May 29, 2017 5:33 AM
Sonali Malu
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Prior to each phase... yes could be more simplified and phase-wise purpose, roles of stakeholders could be discussed.
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Mohamad FararjehProject Management - Electrical Engineer| San Francisco Bar Area Rapid Transit (BART)Santa Clara, Ca, United States
Kick off meetings should be held after the completion and approval of all elements of the management project plan. Prior to that any kick off meeting would not be productive. This is for a single phase project. For multiple phase projects, it can held prior to the start of each phase, it depends on the complexity of the project and how it is managed.
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1 reply by Sonali Malu
May 29, 2017 5:32 AM
Sonali Malu
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Thank you for your inputs..
Saving Changes...
Mohammed AsimProjects QA/QC Manager| Saudi Building and Construction Management (SBCM)Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
Many sources suggest after the finalisation of the Plans, or typically last process in the Planning Process, or just before the starting of the Execution phase. Having an experience of only a couple of kick-off meetings, I feel the best time is during the planning phase when you are done with Scope, Time, Cost and Risk Planning, obviously after Identification of Stakeholders.
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
There is not a rule that states at which exact point in time the kick off meeting shall be held, it really depends on each project. It could also be that there are various kick off meetings - internal, with customer, with supplier, etc.
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1 reply by Sonali Malu
May 29, 2017 5:31 AM
Sonali Malu
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Yes, true... Thank you Eduard!
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Philippe SchulerSenior Instructor/Lecturer in Project/Program/Account PMO Management| Independant ConsultantLes Choux, France
Usually we launch the global program kick-off meeting as soon as the contract with the Customer is signed ùeaning we have a high level plan available as well as the top structure of the different organizations. This is the right time to alaign the internal planned resources (internal kick-off) and to share views with the Customer (external kick-off). Both kick-off are usually held over a 2 or 3 days event. Then there will be internal and external kick-off at each project level.
Of course other kick-off are held when at each key program phase change (for example: moving from a Transition phase to a Transformation phase). Saving Changes...
There is not a rule that states at which exact point in time the kick off meeting shall be held, it really depends on each project. It could also be that there are various kick off meetings - internal, with customer, with supplier, etc.
Many sources suggest after the finalisation of the Plans, or typically last process in the Planning Process, or just before the starting of the Execution phase. Having an experience of only a couple of kick-off meetings, I feel the best time is during the planning phase when you are done with Scope, Time, Cost and Risk Planning, obviously after Identification of Stakeholders.
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