Have you just been given the marching orders to start a project and you're
wondering, how do you do it? Well this video is for you. I'm gonna give you five
quick and easy tips on how to start the project the right way. As well stay tuned
for the end of the video because I'm gonna give you a free download for a key
project document that you need in order to be successful.
Hi, I'm Adriana Girdler, President of CornerStone Dynamics and an efficiency
expert, I'm also a project management professional and I have managed small to
large global scale projects for the past 20 years and over the years of doing
this I have learned a lot of ups and downs of what makes a great project and
what really can kill a project and in this video I have some tried and true
techniques that I use all the time no matter the size of the project and I
like to share them with you so let's get to it.
Step number one: I want you to validate or create a project scope statement.
You've just been given your marching orders, congratulations, that's a really
big accomplishment to be managing a project. If you are lucky you probably
got a project scope statement from the executive sponsor or your direct manager
but probably a nine out of ten cases you didn't, so the first thing you have to do
is you have to create a scope statement but if you did get one you have to
validate it. I highly recommend this, this sometimes gets missed and what happens a
lot of times as a lot of assumptions get built. I want you to validate or create a
project scope statement sit down with the key executives and get them to agree
to everything that is in and out, do not move forward with the project if you
have not done this, I promise you it will kill you in the end because people will
assume a lot of stuff and if you don't do this very important step at the
get-go, you ultimately are not going to have a successful project, so take that
equation out and I want you to create or validate your project scope statement as
a very first step of your project. Step number two is to create your
project charter, this is a very important document, just like your project scope
statement, your project scope statement actually lives in the charter. The
charter is a live document, it actually outlines everything that you need to
know to sort of kick off this project, it has the scope it has assumptions,
expectations, initial risks, roles, responsibilities, who's doing exactly
what, high-level milestones, budgets, there's a whole bunch of cool stuff. You
have to do this and as a project manager it's your job to actually kick off this
initial documentation, I actually use it as my kick off in order to get everyone
ready to rock and roll and even more importantly is get people to sign it
because this is going to ensure that they bought into everything that was put
in this document and ensure that you have a successful project. Step number
three is to create a project deliverable list and that is real high level either
action item or milestones on what potentially is in the project. As a
project manager you really need this to kick it off with your team, so we
actually call this a WBS, if you check out my other video on project
terminology you'll actually get a whole bunch of terminologies of things that
I'm saying in this video but there's a nice explanation of what a WBS is in
that particular video so please check it out but on that note you really have to
kick it off to saying, what are we responsible for? And create that high
level deliverable list, really important along with those other documents. Step
number four is now you have to set up your project support mechanisms. Well
what do I mean by that? Well you got the scope statement, you have a charter,
you've done the high level deliverable breakdown lists, all important things
so that you can kick things off with your team but now you got to set up, what are
the tools, the expectations that you want to have your team work within? Is that a
shared drive, are you going to go to SharePoint, where are you gonna house
stuff, all of that important stuff, what tools are you gonna use? You need to get
everybody on the same page because if we're all doing the same thing at least
for greater success then everyone doing all their siloed activity because we
know what silo does, it just does not bring
everybody together, so get a central location for stuff, really figure out how
you want your team to work and give them the tools to be successful. Step number
five: Schedule and execute your project kickoff meeting. Congratulations, this is
a really critical part of your project, you've just done all of this preparatory
work, as I said the scope statement, the charter, your high-level deliverables, you
have everything set up from a tool perspective for your team to be
successful. Now you want to kick it off, you want to invite everybody to the
kickoff meeting, share with them all of these documents that you created, more
importantly don't tell them what to do, get them to buy into what they're gonna
do. So what I usually do is I set aside either a half day or even a full day
depending on how large the project is and I get them to review everything and
provide input. Is this true, do you think anything has to come out, do you have to add
anything, here's a section you're going to own, what else do you want to add to
it? Etc etc. It really ensures this empowerment of the team, it gets everyone
together and bought into the process which is really important if you're
going to be successful because I promise you,
projects happen with a group of people who are all working synergistically not
individual people who are only worried about themselves, so on that note set up
your project kickoff meeting and get your team bought in to what you're
trying to do by getting their input because don't forget, they're the subject
matter expert. Congratulations, you are now ready to start your project by using
those five really impactful tips. I highly recommend you do them, it will
truly make a difference in your project. As well don't forget the promise of that
free download, I have a free mini charter for you to download, take a look at the
download below in the verbiage and it will give you what you need in order to
execute your project. The cool thing is you can keep it as is or you can ramp it
up by adding more information it's really up to you as to how far you want
to go with it. Thank you so much for watching this video, if you liked this
video please give it a thumbs up, please subscribe to the button below and if you
agree with what was said in this video please say "Project Management
Rocks" in the comment below. I look forward to talking to you at my next
video. Have a great day, bye!