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Project Start Checklist

This document is aimed to be a guideline for Tech Leads when starting a new project delivery. As such, it is not an enforcement but a strong recommendation to follow. It is NOT a goal to replace any processes in use by the PMO, but to augment it in practical aspects that can be controlled by the Tech Lead.

For the sake of the completeness, here are the current processes and templates that are in use by the PMO:

note

This is the current official version of the Project Start Checklist. If you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement, use this working document: Project init checklist

Onboarding: Review SOW and WBS​

  • Check all prerequisites in the SOW. Any uncleared prerequisite is a risk basically that should be mitigated ASAP or should be added to the Risk log with a due date.
  • Check all assumptions in the SOW. Any assumption that has the slightest chance of not being true during the implementation should be added to the Risk log.
  • Identify points that should have been cleared up with the client before the project start and prepare with those topics for the client kickoff meeting. (You may add them as risks in the meantime, just to be on the safe side)
  • Identify architectural and implementation risks, come up with a mitigation plan, and add them to the implementation risks
  • Reach out to the solution architect who created the design if there are any gaps in understanding of the project scope.

Client kickoff​

  • Bring up any unmet prerequisites. Assign owners (from the client) to recorded missing prerequisites on the risk log.
  • Talk through missing details that have been collected when reviewing the SOW
  • (Re-)agree on the milestones, confirm what constitutes acceptance for each major deliverable and identify who will sign those off
  • Gather missing / confirm stakeholders, technical point of contacts, confirm their availabilities raising the related SLAs from the SOW
  • Document who can approve scope, architecture, data access, and security exceptions

Internal planning​

  • Identify integration points in either direction and schedule those.
  • Identify implementation risks, resolve them on the spot if possible, add the rest to the risk log
  • Assign an owner, and build a mitigation and contingency plan for all items on the risk log above an agreed on severity (default = Major)
  • Plan at least twice as much internal milestones than the client milestones
  • Ensure that all the success criteria defined in the SOW are covered in the Productive task breakdown and are assigned to milestones
  • Ensure that all the success criteria defined in the SOW are assigned to milestones
  • External proprietary APIs are a risk in general that should be managed on the Risk log
  • Align the project with the AI policy: what tools can be used, what is communicated to the client etc. (note: added for TL here, as he understands the tools, the implications for the team, what needs to be adjusted on the work)
  • Check the task break-down if any of the tasks include a risk of GPC cost overrun if not being careful enough, and note those in the related tickets

Internal kickoff​

  • Validate data accesses.
  • Check sources for unforeseen PII that need to be treated.
  • Data quality check (if applicable). Add as risk if any concern comes up.
  • Start a decision log for architecture, scope, data, security, and operational decisions that affect delivery. Record decision owner, deadline, alternatives, and consequence of delay.
  • Review the risk log and ensure all identified risks have owners, mitigation plans, and contingency plans in place.