Organizing a Team and Delivering a Product
Darin Bartholomew (Project Manager with a focus on Information Security Projects) – Technical Project Specialist @ Vanguard
Tuesday, October 20th, 2020.
Defining your Problem Statement
- You first need to think through “What problem are you trying to solve?”
- How to do this:
- Problem statement
- Project Charter
- Scope Document
- Manifesto
- Once this is done, every single decision you make moving forward will be connected to that problem.
- How to do this:
People
- Who do you need? What skill sets?
- What is the impact on the employees or customers?
- Who are your stakeholders?
Product & Technology
- What\\\’s your deliverable?
- What platforms need to be leveraged?
- Are you equipped with what you need?
Process
- What cadences do you need?
- How are decisions made?
- How/When do you need to escalate?
Risk Identification – What can go wrong?
- “An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project’s objectives”- Project Management Institute (PMI)
- Every single risk that you identify needs to have a level of risk identified to it
- (high, medium, low / severity)
- Not all risks need mitigation
- Some are too costly, others don’t matter
Risk Management – How are you resolving?
- Risk register to keep track of risks
- Define a level for each risk (high, medium, low, ETC)
- Have regular process for discussing risk with stakeholders
- Not all risks need action – what will you accept?
- Does the process/product cause risks to others areas of the enterprise?
- (cyber, financial, impact to other programs, ETC)
Change Management – Don’t “throw things over the wall”
- What will be the impact to all stakeholders?
- What are you doing to prepare those stakeholders?
- How are you receiving and incorporating feedback onto the program?
How are you measuring success and communicating status?
- Think back to the problem, what are you trying to solve and how can you measure it?
- SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based
- Outcomes based – What is the outcome you want to achieve?
- Strategic Alignment – how does this tie to other objectives of the enterprise?
- Funding case – if this is a funded project, how do you solve value for that investment?
- “Statusing” – how needs to know what and when?
- Remember the audience, is it technical status, business status, financial status? What level of the company are they?
- Always be transparent even when status may not be ideal (don’t create a personal risk!)
- What are decisions that stakeholders need to make?