Chapter 13
Kicking Off a Project
The executing portion of the project life cycle starts with a few kickoff activities before your team members can dig into the work on their assignments. Getting stakeholders' approval (in writing) for your project plan segues from planning into executing.
The approved project plan means that you can set the baseline for your project. You save versions of all the approved plan documents so you can track any changes that are made going forward. If you haven't done so already, you set up the storage system for your project notebook, which is the repository for all project documentation and communication.
At the same time, you need your project team on board to start work. If team members come from within your organization, now is the time to communicate with their managers that the project is a go and when their folks should report for duty. However, if you need people and other resources from outside your organization, it's time to procure those resources.
In some very large projects, planning is so extensive that you have a kickoff meeting when planning starts. But after the plan is approved, you're ready for the kickoff of project tasks. You can assemble all the players — the stakeholders and your team — for a kickoff meeting, during which you review the project, outline the schedule, and explain the ground rules.
Preparing to Execute the Project
Before you hand out assignments to team members, you have a few additional project management tasks ...
