Autograph Hound's Blah Blah Blog

Monday, February 20, 2012

#SDCC – The project – Initiate phase deliverables

The 5 phases – Initiate Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, Close Down
Preparation is only worth what you put into it and what you get out of it. Don’t over plan.
Are you going to SDCC with a group of people? Are you pooling resources or sharing responsibilities?
You might want to look at selecting a Project Manager and creating a Project Charter for ComicCon trip.
The first deliverable is delegating someone from your group to act as Project Manager.
A Project Manager (PM) is the person that manages the project from start to end. They do that through coordinating, expediting, communicating, and managing the tasks, resources, and people.
Ultimately they are responsible for a successful or failed project. Whether they have excuses or extenuating circumstances, they are responsible.  If they research and plan and monitor well (or their delegates do those functions well) the project should succeed.
They need to be able to make decisions, manage resources, and manage the plan. The PM needs to be able to delegate and get open and frank feedback from the team. The PM should be a benevolent dictator.
There IS a difference between managing and bossing.
The PM will be using the information from the 5 phases of the project cycles and the information of his team to decide how to plan, delegate, and track the various tasks needed to have a successful trip San Diego and ComicCon.
The second deliverable from the Initiate Phase is the Project Charter.
The Project Charter explains what the goal is. Something like:  4 friends planning a trip to SDCC. They will collect x amount of money, they will arrange airfare, hotel, and transportation. They want to have a good time.
The Charter assigns the PM.
The Charter will explain why this project needs to be done: The project aims at correcting issues from past trips. Previous trips to SDCC, people canceled at the last minute or we could find a hotel or we didn’t have enough money to enjoy out trip. We want to be able experience more of the convention.
The Charter will list the Risks.
What is your definition of success? If you don’t define success, how did you know if you failed or succeeded?  What is a ‘good time’? Hangovers or emptied bank accounts do not mean success. Defining it now, also level sets expectations among the team; this is an important part of managing and prioritizing the scope.
Who holds the purse strings?  While the PM can spend the money, they don’t get to keep it in their back pocket.  Who does the PM report? 
Discussing this up front and at various points through the project help keep you on target and lets everyone know what is working and what can work better.

AH

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