Tag Archives: Project Management

Project-Kickoff-Presentation.pptx

Project Management,
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This is a Project Kickoff Presentation that can be used for a variety of project types.  It is intended to be used at a project kickoff meeting with relevant stakeholders, project sponsors, and project team members present.  The meeting is typically led by the project manager or a project sponsor. The tone of the meeting should be motivating to encourage interest and commitment to the project. Depending on the size of the project, the meeting can be between one and two hours, including time for questions. The kickoff meeting provides high level information about the project and does not get into granular details of the project implementation. The slides are in wide screen format.

This project kickoff presentation includes slides for:

  • Goals
  • Benefits
  • Assumptions
  • Scope
  • Project Team
  • Groups Impacted
  • Key Dates and Milestones
  • Implementation Plan
  • Risks and Mitigation
  • Communication Plan
  • Next Steps

Each of the items above should be well planned and thought out prior to the project kickoff. It is common to involve key project members in the creation of the project kickoff presentation content to ensure accuracy and that a wide variety of perspectives have been accounted for. It is also wise to discuss some of the information above with key project sponsors and stakeholders prior to the kickoff meeting to avoid any major disapproval in the meeting. Time should be allotted throughout the presentation or at the end for questions and discussion. Discussion items that are very detailed or are taking too much time should be tabled by the meeting leader, and he/she should assign someone to follow up on that topic after the meeting.

This project kickoff presentation can also be used later in the project if new team members are brought on board.  The presentation can be shared with them to help them get up to speed quickly on the details of the project.

 

Project-Charter-Template.docx

Business, Information Technology, Project Management,
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This is a versatile, professional project charter template that can be used for projects of all different types. The template is fairly detailed. Sections that are not needed for certain projects can be removed. The project charter is usually created by the Project Manager early in the Project Management Life Cycle.

The project charter can be used to “pitch” or “sell” the project to executives or leaders who will decide whether or not to fund the project. It is also used to communicate project details to resource managers who will decide whether or not to commit their team members to the project. Once approved, the project charter authorizes work to commence on the project and gives authority to the project manager to lead the project. Additionally, all project team members should be familiar with the project charter prior to beginning work. This helps ensure that all team members understand the objectives and benefits the team is working towards, as well as what is in and out of scope.

This project charter template includes sections for:

  • Project Overview
  • Objectives and Expected Benefits
  • Problem Description
  • Root Causes
  • Solution Proposal
  • Scope Details
  • Project Milestones
  • Team Members
  • Project Costs
  • Risk Mitigation
  • Communication Plan
  • Additional Details

The project charter is also a great resource to help bring new project team members up to speed who join the project after the initial kick off.

Context-Level-DFD-with-Groupings.vsd

Information Technology, ,
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This is a Visio template for a Context Level DFD (Data Flow Diagram).  A Context Level DFD is often used in system analysis and IT projects to help determine scope.  Typically, the name of the project or the system that is being worked on is put into the middle circle.

The boxes connecting to the middle circle are people, groups, departments, processes and other systems that will interact with your project.  The connecting lines describe what input (information, business rules, etc) are being provided to you and what output you are providing to the other entities.

This Context Level DFD provides groupings of the connecting entities to help organize the document.  This is useful anytime a group of entities share the same inputs or outputs.

It is important to complete the Context Level DFD early in the project.  The connecting entities need to be aware and in agreement with the changes you are making since they will be impacted.  The connecting entities are often considered stakeholders of your project.

The colors, green, yellow and red are used to demonstrate what connection points are in scope and out of scope for the given phase or duration of the project.  

Context-Level-DFD.vsd

Information Technology, ,
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This is a Visio template for a Context Level DFD (Data Flow Diagram).  A Context Level DFD is often used in system analysis and IT projects to help determine scope.  Typically, the name of the project or the system that is being worked on is put into the middle circle.

The boxes connecting to the middle circle are people, groups, departments, processes and other systems that will interact with your project.  The connecting lines describe what input (information, business rules, etc) are being provided to you and what output you are providing to the other entities.

It is important to complete the Context Level DFD early in the project.  The connecting entities need to be aware and in agreement with the changes you are making since they will be impacted.  The connecting entities are often considered stakeholders of your project.

It is considered a best practice to only document one step out from the middle circle.  The inputs and outputs between a connecting entity and their stakeholders are not typically included in the Context Level DFD as that entity is responsible for managing and understanding all of their own connection points. This also prevents the diagram from becoming over complicated.

The colors, green, yellow and red are used to demonstrate what connection points are in scope and out of scope for the given phase or duration of the project.

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IT-Project-Plan-Template.xlsx

Business, Information Technology, Project Management, ,
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This IT Project Plan template is intended for small IT projects, roughly 3-6 months.  It has the basic tasks of a project already populated for the Project Manager, Business Analyst and Developer/Programmer.

Additionally, it has places for the Status of each tasks, Start Date, End Date, Duration, and Owner.  The Duration field calculates automatically based on the Start & End Date of the Task.

Be careful with the Status field.  What you enter into this field determines the color of the entire row.  You may enter: Not Started, In Progress, Delayed, Completed, Milestone or (Phase).

Since this is a template for smaller IT projects, it does not provide functionality for Dependencies, a Gantt Chart, etc.  For those types of features, consider using MS Project or another tool instead of Excel.

Project-Plan-Template.xlsx

Business, Project Management,
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This is a project plan template that can be used across many types of projects. It is built in Microsoft Excel and is simple and easy to use. This project plan template allows for the entering of:

  • Task Name
  • Status
  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • Owner.

Additionally, the Project Plan template automatically calculates the Duration of each task, as well as the Total Project Duration and Project Completion Date.

The project plan template also shades each row a certain color based on which status the task is in. A Completed task shades the row green, an In Progress task shades the row orange, a Delayed task shades the row red.  A status of Not Started does not create any shading and leaves the text black.

To indicate a line is a Milestone, type “Milestone” into the Status field and it will turn the text blue and remove any shading. To indicate a line is a Project Phase (or header of multiple tasks), type “(Phase)” into the status field and it will shade the row grey to mark it as a a phase which does not have a status.

The project plan, also known as a “project schedule”, is created and maintained by the Project Manager. It should be easily accessible to project team members, stakeholders and sponsors. It can also be printed and hung in a common working area to create a sense of accountability for tasks and timelines.