SessionOne014

Giving your project the best chance to succeed by starting right
Bob King, Jerry Weinberg, Nynke Fokma

Projects are formed to solve problems. The way projects begin can create even more problems - problems that can cause projects to fail before they can even begin to address original problems. In this session, we explore these questions:

When and how does a project begin - officially vs. really?
What choices are made, by whom, before the official beginning?
How can we become aware that these choices are being made?
How important are these choices, and how can we influence them?

Each of us will leave with a better understanding of what starts our projects off on the wrong foot, and specific tools to help us begin well.

StartingRightSummaryOfPresentations
Please add your StartingRightSessionNuggets
Thanks, BobKing

IdealogueSessionOne014

I have written a short article about how to StartMeaningfulProjects. These ideas represent my current thinking regarding one aspect of starting projects well. I am looking forward to learning more. BobKing

Bob, I read your starting a meaningful project article. I like it.

I am interested in finding out more about --
"Connect them (the project team) up to the rest of the organization by making key people available early. Create a context diagram with them. A context diagram shows all the events accepted and generated by the deliverables of the project. Put it in the Project Charter. Base the requirements and analysis work on the context diagram."

Would you share a context diagram that you've used? Thanks, -SteveSmith

Steve, here is an example. BobKing

Bob, Thank you for sharing the diagram.

What differences do you think the use of the context diagram had on the project? -SteveSmith

The differences were felt early. The use of the context diagram helped everyone:

have a common starting point
build a common language
begin to agree on a partitioning of the domain
agree on scope for sub-projects
learn more about the overall domain - especially for those new to the area
feel that they had a complete picture

BobKing

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Updated: Wednesday, November 7, 2001