Bach Seat

If you should find yourself in such an expanded role, the article says to be S.M.A.R.T. about the kick-off meeting. The author recommends during your kick-off meeting (call) be sure you review the statement of work (SOW) and make sure the project goals and milestones are:

Specific: Specificity reduces misunderstandings.

Measurable: A task that is not measurable will never be completed. How would you know when it’s finished?

Agreed upon by all parties: If a milestone or task is not agreed upon by all parties, it is not worth doing.

Realistic: It is the task of the delivery engineer to determine what is realistic and craft a plan that takes into account the client approval processes, change management restrictions, and human resources.

Time Constrained: A task or milestone that has no time constraints will always be finished “tomorrow” and never today.

On small-scale engagements in which there is a finite number of project hours (aren’t they always limited?), the kickoff call may be the only structured status meeting that occurs prior to onsite project delivery. This makes the meeting more urgent: it’s your chance to open communication channels that are crucial to success.

And while you might think project goals are apparent to everyone, experience tells us that sometimes this simply isn’t the case. In fact, it is not uncommon for key personnel to have never seen the SOW.

Think about it: representatives from divisions such as network, application, firewall, network operations center (NOC), security operations center (SOC), identity management, and the Change Control Board were most likely not involved in crafting the SOW — nor were they consulted prior to the contract being signed. Although the project’s success is dependent on their work and expertise, they aren’t familiar with the project’s goals. The article correctly states it’s a mistake to assume they are in the loop, and as manager of the project, you must educate all the key players about all elements of the project.

Moving beyond covering the statement of work, the project goals, and how you plan to complete the project, the blog says you should also bring your sharpest, most probing questions to the meeting. Your goal should be to uncover obstacles encountered in the past and flesh out the details on how to overcome them.

Best practice of all: Remembering that the only dumb question is the one you didn’t ask.

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Of course, all projects should have a trained project manager but if there is no PM, these are pretty good tips.