Project Launch Process L200

Blog: Biz-Performance, David Brown

L200 – Present Project/Segment Approach to User Community and Team

DEFINITION

Organise formal and informal events to brief all participants (whether or not officially part of the project team). They will need to understand the client organisation, scope and objectives, methods and approach, infrastructure, and management/control methods etc.

SUMMARY

Before the project really starts its activities, the people involved and affected by it will need to be briefed about the project, its intent, who is involved, which responsibilities they will have and how the project is going to work.

This briefing is the first major communication exercise to the project team and people outside the project team. As such it will need to address the typical questions surrounding any communication effort:

Who needs to be briefed?

A distinction will need to be made between people who need to know information so that they can work correctly, and people who need to know for information purposes only.

What do they need to be briefed on?

Although there will be common information needs, depending on the groups identified, communication may need to be tailored to specific needs.

How is it best communicated

Some information can be presented in a written format to people, other information will need to be more thoroughly discussed and maybe there is even a need for training sessions on certain elements of the project approach.

Who should be involved in delivering the communication?

A mix of specialists, sponsors and project team manager / leaders will probably be needed to ensure the messages that are given are correct, complete, pitched at the right people and carry the credibility needed.

PATH PLANNING GUIDANCE

This process is optional. It is good practice where there are several people involved in the project.

DEPENDENCIES

Prerequisites (Finish-Finish):

Review/confirm ToR, Scope, Objectives (L010)
Review/confirm business needs and anticipated benefits (L020)
Do quality plan (L080)
Produce Path Plan (L090)
Define organisation, people, support requirements (L100)
Segment Plan (L120)
Agreed project organisation and roles (L130)
Mobilise Resources (L160)
Set-up/review user involvement (L170)
Set-up/review management organisation (L180)
Implement/re-implement project management and control techniques (L190)
Setup/revise and agree communications plan (L060)

Dependent procedures (Finish-Finish):

Following segment processes

RECEIVABLES

Project Constitution
Definition of business needs and anticipated benefits
Path Plan
Quality Plan
Segment Plan – ie detailed plan for the segment
Project Organigramme
Communication Plan

DELIVERABLES

Project approach presentation meeting
Project approach briefing pack

TOOLS

(none)

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF TASKS

The purpose of the presentation of the project approach to the project team and the users is twofold:

ensuring that all the people who will be involved in the project know its context, its organisation, principles of working,
so that participants can interpret how they fit into that bigger picture,
to start building project team and user commitment to the project objectives and approaches.

To ensure these objectives are met successfully, the project manager and project sponsor will need to :

identify who needs to know what,
take the actions necessary to ensure the right level of understanding and buy-in.

Identifying who needs to know what

At the start of the project, the project and its context will need to be introduced to a number of interest groups. Typical groups that may need to be considered are:

project team members
user management who will be part of the project structure (e.g. project board members)
other users managers
users who will be working with the project
other users
IT department managers and staff
other interest groups, e.g. regulators, non-executive directors, auditors, etc.

To identify successfully all the interest groups, an organisational analysis of the company may be called for. In practice, it may be difficult to list all the people who need initial information and, as briefing sessions take place, additional groups or individuals may be suggested and extra-briefings are planned as new interest groups are identified.

Each of the groups in question will have different information needs. For instance, project team members will need to know in detail what the roles of the project team members are and how they are going to use project planning / monitoring tools and techniques such as timesheets. To other groups (e.g. project board members) a high-level understanding of project progress reporting could be enough and in some cases none of it is actually relevant.

It may be appropriate to organise different events for different groups of people. In larger projects, affecting many people in different ways (and maybe also covering different geographic locations), a complex briefing programme could be called for.

Typical subjects that may be considered for the briefing are:

Business drivers and expected business benefits from the project
Terms of reference, scope, objectives of the project
High-level plan and projected timeframe
Principles of the approach: methods, strategies
Project organisation: who is who;, roles and responsibilities; and communication
User involvement and communication
Specific techniques and methodologies
Practical issues: location, infrastructure, etc.

Ensuring the right level of understanding and buy-in

After having identified for each group what the exact need to know really is, the right mechanisms for achieving the understanding and commitment will have to be put in place. The following factors may be considered:

participative or directive style
selecting the right person to brief the groups
appropriate mechanisms, approach and tools.

Depending on the chosen change management approach (see Process L050), the mechanisms may vary from highly participative to very directive. In a more participative approach, communication and presentation will start before all elements are fully defined and will allow people to influence the outcome, whereas in a more directive approach the elements will be defined by a small group and the rest of the people will be informed of the outcome. For each project it must be decided which approach is appropriate for what group of people and which events will need to be tailored as a consequence.

Who delivers the briefing will have an influence on its credibility and will ultimately determine whether people will give the right level of attention to the project.

The project sponsor should participate in the briefing and be seen to understand and support the project. In large organisations there might even be a need to cascade the briefing from management layer to management layer and involve sponsors at different levels of the company.
The briefing may be an opportunity to introduce the project management team and have a number of people deal with specific specialist areas. For a large project team, a cascaded approach to the briefing where the project manager briefs the project management team, who in turn brief their subteams.
Subject specialists may be the best people to deal with specific areas, e.g. the planning and estimating approach may be best explained by an expert who does not necessarily have a management role in the project.

Finally, consideration needs to be given to the mechanisms used to brief people. The following options may be considered:

written briefing pack
presentation
one-to-one meetings
workshops, conference
video
item in existing meetings, publications (company awayday e.g.)
training sessions
manuals
project launch celebration or social event.

It is unlikely that one single mechanism will satisfy all the needs for everyone and therefore a number of techniques may be used. For instance, project team members could attend a conference to obtain a high-level understanding and then go through tailored training programmes to equip them fully for their role on the project, while at the same time, the project sponsor is going round different parts of the organisation with a video based presentation.

Timing the briefing

Briefing the project team and the users is usually not a one-off exercise, but a process that needs to be repeated. The start of a new segment is a typical milestone which will require some level of briefing. Especially on longer projects maintaining the project team and user understanding and commitment can be a challenge. Regular updates on how things have evolved and why will help users and project team members adjust their expectations and maintain their commitment to the project.