From the course: Project Management Simplified

Kick-off meetings

From the course: Project Management Simplified

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Kick-off meetings

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- There's always a temptation to just get on with a project and work out all the details later, but this is really dangerous. Most projects have multiple stakeholders and it's almost certain that they won't all want exactly the same thing. And at the end of your project, some of them may well complain that it's not what they wanted. So the answer is to get them all together for a kickoff meeting where you can agree what the project is going to look like. As the project manager, your attitude should be, "I'll do whatever you like, "but we have to all agree what that is going to be." And if they say, "Just start anywhere, "and we'll work out the details later," a good answer is, "I can't start till I've planned it, "and I can't plan it till I know what you want." In reality, if you start before the project is defined, it'll end up costing you a lot more and taking a lot longer, because of the changes, and therefore, wasted work that will happen along the way. Now I think you actually need two kickoff meetings. One where everyone agrees what the project is going to be, and how much time and money we're prepared to put into it. And then there's a gap while you go away and you plan, whether it's actually possible to do it. And then you have a second kickoff meeting where everyone agrees your plan. This second meeting might be a good news meeting where you announce that you can do it, show them your plan, and everyone agrees to commit to it. They promise to be available for their parts of it, to give you the information and decisions you need when you need them, and they promise that they will be happy when you deliver the agreed outcome by the date and budget. But sometimes, in fact, probably more than half the time, the second meeting is a bad news meeting where you come back maybe a week or two later, and explain that you can't deliver the project unless you can have some changes. You might say, "I've done some planning "and the Gannt chart says that "we'll need an extra month "and/or an extra $5,000. "Unless you want to reduce the spec a little bit "and miss out this feature here. "What do you think?" It's not your decision. As a group, the stakeholders can discuss what they want to do now that they have the facts and some options. This agreed plan is then put in writing, usually just by an email after the meeting. And can I just say that is the most important email you'll ever send. Because, a year later, when you deliver the project, they will have forgotten all about what was discussed and agreed. In fact, you might even be dealing with different people. So you need to be able to say, "Well, look at this email. "I've delivered exactly what I promised, "and you agreed a year ago. "It's all here in the confirmation email." So that's the two kickoff meetings. The first one to find out what they want. And the second one, after you've done your planning, where they all agree and commit to your plan.

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