Project Management Homework Help

Project Kick-off Meeting

Project kickoff meeting allows the company to be able to create the general direction and the blueprint that needs to be followed to achieve the best possible results from the project. Usually, this involves brain storming ideas that can be changed in the current plan of action, as well as any last-minute additions and proper delegation of the roles and responsibilities of the different departments.

I was a part of a game designing company where the new project required the use of having a project kickoff meeting. The company's management was ineffective in determining the project schedule and how the different departments could create an active communication channel in order to supplement collaboration and therefore, if a proper channel of communication was set and hierarchies were established with an achievable goal in sight with schedules set, the company would have been able to complete the project much faster than they actually did.

Before going to start a project or sometimes during the project, this kickoff meeting is conducted to tell that project has started and explain the various roles of its members like team members, stakeholders and clients. Like all formal meetings, this kickoff meeting will have an agenda.

The usual process for holding a kickoff meeting is

Introduce every person

• Explain about the project's importance, purpose, expected results, risks and deadline
• Discuss the roles and responsibilities of every clearly and provide some guidelines
• Discuss about procedures of project, methods, time or duration, available resources, steps to complete the project more effectively
• Answer the outstanding questions of people ahd discuss them and invite some suggestions from everyone

Tips of Kickoff meeting

1) To conduct this kickoff meeting, before we should plan

2) Understand the vision of project and prepare to share with people in the meeting

3) Identify people who can effectively complete the project

4) Set time and date for the meeting

5) Inform to everyone through phone, mail, message

6) If people are not able to attend meeting directly, use vedio conferencing facility

Who chairs the project kick-off meeting?

The project sponsor should chair the meeting to explain the strategic importance of the project. The idea behind this is to show the members and stakeholders the extent of the executives purchase in. PMI's 2010 Government Program Management Study found that 81% of program supervisors at U.S. government offices concurred that solid help from at official level supporters highly affects the achievement of the project. The chairperson of the meeting is an executive sponsor, the same intent is demonstrated. The project manager will be the organizer of the meeting and he is supposed to explain why is it important to go for the project at this point of time and why it has got higher priority over the other projects.