Process goal
Complete checklists that capture basic information when starting a new project.
Context
When a project organisation starts a new project, the project team (or project manager) needs to capture a project overview that introduces the project and how it will work to other stakeholders. However, no-one ever seems to have time to write detailed documentation at the start of the project. You can use a checklist to capture a set of tasks that might otherwise get forgotten, without any particular structure or sequence to the process. A checklist’s main value comes from identifying tasks that you might otherwise forget. A project initiation checklist addresses questions about the project’s overview and the project plan. A Signavio Process Governance process can present simple forms that guide this initial data collection.
Trigger
Manual.
Actions
This process represents a checklist with one user task for each piece of required project documentation. Each user task adds a level of detail by splitting these project initiation summaries into sections.
The project manager can complete these tasks in any order.
Roles
Project manager - responsible for capturing the project summaries. In practice, the project manager may delegate these tasks to other team members, by assigning the user tasks.
Fields
The Project overview task includes the following fields.
- Business context (Text)
- Vision (Text)
- Goals (Text, multiple values)
- Deliverables (Text, multiple values)
Similarly, the Project plan task captures a summary for each of:
- Resources (Text, multiple values)
- Approach (Text)
- Start date (Date)
- Success factors (Text, multiple values)
- Risks (Text, multiple values)
You could simplify these forms by using Yes/No choices instead of text fields, turning each task into a checklist of its own. However, asking questions like Do you have a project vision? does not focus the mind as well as trying to write a well-formed sentence, which makes you think about about it the question more and forces you to prove that you have an answer.
Extensions
In general, you will extend this process with additional checklist tasks for project initiation work. You can extend this process to include a project approval task, based on the information given.
