Khushboo SinghProject Manager| Envestnet|YodleeBangalore, Karnataka, India
Hi,
Working with stakeholders, I just happened to bag a project after multiple Rejections/Dis-approvals. I do have the business case of the Project with me. Hereafter, what all should be my steps? Should I directly jump to the requirements and start working on Epic and Stories? I already have a dedicated team with me, but I would need few specialized skills for the delivery of the project.
I haven't provided a schedule for it yet and have to provide the same asap.
I do not have the detailed requirements too and I am planning to set up multiple meetings/discussions with all the stakeholders.
Would that be a good enough starting point?
I feel stakeholder list would vary with each project, what would be the best way to find out who would be the stakeholders so that I do not miss any?
This is completely new to me hence I feel having a thorough step-by-step process and procedure would make me learn the intricacies of PM well.
No, do not jump directly into requirements. As a PM this is not your key responsibility, this is the responsibility of the Business Analyst or Product Owner.
First, you have to ask yourself whether you feel comfortable and capable with the assigned task. You have to honest to yourself. After you questioned yourself, couple of recommended steps (most likely not all - others will certainly comment and further add topics I missed):
- Clear understand of the business case and have an agreed baseline with the sponsor resulting in a defined project charter (even if the charter is just one piece of paper, do not start without)
- Get a proper scope in place agreed with your sponsor
- Establish an overall WBS that reflects your scope (team work!)
-Analyze the mentioned knowledge gaps and get agreement with line manager's for respective staffing of needed resources
- Start estimates and planning. Slice the project in small junks in manageable tasks, prioritize and plan the first ones in more detail (team work!)
Once you do the above mentioned topics you are already on a good path. Forgive me, if I "forgot" something. Others will complement and improve my written recommendations. Saving Changes...
Khushboo SinghProject Manager| Envestnet|YodleeBangalore, Karnataka, India
Thanks Peter!
This sounds like a well defined path.
Who all should participate in establishing WBS?
Should I have the required team first and then work on WBS or just BA and PO should be in a position to work on WBS along with me? Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
There are a lot of questions - with a project approved, the BA can begin, or continue with eliciting and formalizing the requirements with the stakeholders. Is there a timeline yet? If so, then you can begin a high-level schedule, filling in more detail as it is learned, but you know the start and finish date, and high-level tasks in between. As requirements are hashed out, there would be an exercise to determine must haves to scope for the allotted timeline. If there is no timeline yet, then that can be driven by the scoped requirements, returned estimation, and resource capacity.
The project approach should be determined by the unique characteristics of the project itself.
Until the work is determined from the requirements, you may not be able to fully determine what or if any special skills are required. It is possible additional resources will be needed.
Yes, different projects will have different stakeholders. Stakeholder identification is important, and even more so when there are up/down stream applications affected by your particular effort.
There's more that I'm sure my colleagues will touch on. We may all write/say it differently, but the core message will be the same. Saving Changes...
Tim PodestaDirector of PM/PMO| Former BP- now IndependentPenn, Bucks, United Kingdom
Congratulations. I agree with the points made by the other contributors. If there were two critical pieces of data I would look early on for they would be any expectation that leadership and stakeholders have on delivery in terms of date and then a high level plan to assess the feasibility of achieving this date with the resources available. My experience is that one of the biggest risks for a project manager coming into a new project is being landed with an unreasonable delivery date. However, once you have confidence in the scope and resources against a delivery date then commit to that and use that as motivation for yourself and the team. Good luck. Saving Changes...
Kushboo, related to your question directed to me:
- first make up your own mind whether you have a full understanding of waht is expected from you and your understanding of the project scope
- than as one of the most important planning activities try to slice and structure the complexity of the scope in a structure you can use for further definition of work-packages. Here I strongly recommend you to do this excercise with the team. In case of a "big team", do this excercise with the so-called project leadership team first, in case of further information requirements involve more people as needed. Understand the WBS construction as a great team excercise to better understand the scope and related work behind to get it done. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
I understood you have the business case approved. You have to do elicitation task focused on two main components: 1-all related to project stakeholders (identification/clasification/management strategy) 2-project requirements to create all related to project. You must work on requirements but project requirements not product requirements (business analyst is accountable for that). If you do not understand your stakeholders is not possibility to move forward (here I give you a link to an article that was publised by the PMI and the IIBA as best practice. Perhaps it helps you:https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-pos...-stakeholders). If you do not know what you have to create (product/service/result) is not possbility to created all related to project. Mainly the project charter. Saving Changes...
