原文：

A well-planned kickoff meeting sets the tone for a successful project
Takeaway: Your team’s first impression of a project can set the tone for success or failure. These planning guidelines will help you make your project kickoff meeting count.

Your first project meeting is an opportunity to share your plan for leading the project to a successful completion. You should take advantage of this one-time chance to energize the group, set proper expectations, and establish guidelines that will help you complete the project on time and within budget. If you fail to prepare for this meeting, you’ll put the project at risk right from the start.

When you leave the kickoff meeting, everyone on the project team must be on the same page. Your preparation beforehand will determine whether your kickoff meeting will offer the greatest benefit to team members.

Meeting preparation
Step 1: Develop the project goals and deliverables
Defining these elements will drive the decisions you must make for staffing the project and developing the project plan. Write them down and validate your definitions with the project owners (whoever justified and initiated the project).
Step 2: Identify the project team members and their responsibilities
Resource needs vary based upon the size, complexity, and nature of the project. Include resources from four key groups, as needed, to fully support your project.

• Operations
• Corporate support
• Management
• Technical

Develop a project team contact list that includes the name, responsibility, department, physical location, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address for each member. You’ll want to distribute this to the team.

Step 3: Develop a project assumptions list
It’s important for project team members to be aware of major assumptions that apply to the project. For example, spell out the assumption that each team member has been selected and made available to the project by their manager to ensure its success. That assumption means that their assigned tasks must take priority, and each participant must be committed to the success of the project if they are to participate.

Step 4: Develop the preliminary project plan
You can save a lot of time by going ahead and developing the tasks, responsibilities, and timeframes of the project plan. Going through this exercise will help you validate whether you have the right resources, identify risks, and determine the appropriate timelines for tasks and milestones.

Use whatever resources you need to help you create the initial project plan. The point here is that when you go into the kickoff meeting, you will already have a plan drafted. Doing so will save time and get the project off to a faster start. (To develop a project plan, download this project-planning template.)

Realize that the plan is not carved in stone at this point. Actually, it should never be. Up until the kickoff meeting, it is a knowledgeable draft. Once you have the team assembled and assign clear responsibilities, you should ask team members to validate their task responsibilities and timeframes for reasonability, completeness, and accuracy. The plan will become more established at the first project status meeting.

Step 5: Define key success factors
Every project team member needs to know what it takes to have a successful project. Take the time to define in specific terms each item that will be required for success. Validate your list with the project owner(s).

Step 6: Schedule the project kickoff meeting
It is important for all project team members to participate in the kickoff meeting. Send a communication to each participant with a preferred time and date and include options in case they are unavailable. Even if someone is “out of pocket,” he or she can participate by phone.

Your goal here is to assemble the entire team so they all hear the same message at the start of the project. Instruct all participants to look for meeting materials on a specified date and to prepare for the meeting by reviewing them.

As soon as you have a firm time and date, schedule a conference room and phone services to support conference calls, as needed. Plan for a 90-minute meeting.

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Personal note
In a recent project, I had 12 team members from four company departments located in seven physical office locations in five cities. It’s not always feasible to get all team members in the same conference room, as in this case. By preparing a solid agenda, providing supporting documentation ahead of time, and organizing the flow of the meeting, you can conduct an excellent kickoff meeting that gets all participants focused on the same objectives, even when many do not know one another.
Step 7: Send the kickoff meeting materials to all participants
On your designated date, send a package of meeting materials to each participant, including:

1. Meeting time and date with call-in phone number
2. Meeting agenda
3. Project participants’ contact information
4. Project plan draft

Ask each person to review the project plan carefully. Indicate that additional information will be discussed at the kickoff meeting and everyone should be familiar with his or her part of the plan. Explain that there will be a Q&A session at the meeting to answer any questions.

Step 8: Identify key issues and project dependencies
Review the project plan prior to the kickoff meeting and make notes on points that you want to make at the meeting. Pertinent items include potential bottlenecks, impact issues, risk areas, etc.

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What’s next?
After all of your preparation, knowing how to conduct your kickoff meeting is the next step. In part two of this series, we’ll detail the best way to lead a project kickoff meeting.
Mike Sisco is CEO of MDE Enterprises, an IT management consulting and training company in Atlanta. For more insight into Mike’s management perspective, take a look at MDE’s IT Manager Development Series.





























译文：

一个计划周密的项目启动会议为项目的成功打下良好的基础
2007-8-17 14:04:49 作者：Michael Sisco 翻译：张驰

摘要：你的团队对项目的第一印象能够树立项目成功或失败的基调。以下这些规划项目的指导将帮助你，并使你的项目启动会议更有价值。

你召开的第一次项目会议，是一个为使项目成功地完成，并与你的团队分享你的项目计划的机会。你应当利用这一次性的机会，去激励团队，设定合适的期望，建立能帮助你准时、并在预算内完成项目的指导原则。如果你不能成功地准备这次会议，你将完全使你的项目从开始就处于风险中。

当你结束项目启动会议，项目团队中的每个人必须在相同的位置。你预先的准备，将决定启动会议是否会给团队成员提供最大的利益。

会议的准备
步骤1：制定项目目标与项目交付物（输出）
定义这些要素，你将做出为项目配备人员和制定项目计划的决定。写下你的决定，并与项目所有者（任何能证明项目是正确的、及发起项目的人）确认你的定义。
步骤2：确定项目成员与职责
资源需求的变化基于项目的大小、复杂程度，及类型。它包括来自四个关键组的资源，必要时，他/她们要求全力支持你的项目。

• 营运部门
• 公司的支持
• 管理层
• 技术的支持
制作项目团队的联络清单，包括每个人的姓名，职责，部门，所在位置，电话/传真号码，和电邮地址；并将该清单分发给你的团队。

步骤3：制定项目假设清单
制定项目假设清单，对项目团队成员了解适用于项目的主要假设是重要的。例如，清楚地说明已选定的项目团队成员，并通过他/她们的经理确保被选定的成员是可到项目中进行工作的。如果他们参与项目将确保项目成功，假设表示他们分配的任务必须注明任务的优先级，及每个参与者必须承诺。

步骤4：制定初步项目计划
通过预先制定项目计划的任务、职责、和时间范围，你可以节省大量的时间。经过这个练习将帮助你确认你是否有合适的资源，识别风险，并对任务和里程碑确定适当的时间。

无论使用什么资源，你需要帮助你自己制定初步的项目计划。这里的关键点，是当你召开启动会议时，你已经有了计划草案。按照草案做将节省时间，并使项目有一个快速的开始。

实现计划不是在石头上将计划雕刻上去，仅仅停留在纸上。实际上，也不应该如此。直到启动会议前，项目计划还是草案。一旦你组建团队并分配清晰的职责，你应当要求团队成员合理地、完全地、准确地确认他们任务和时间范围。计划在项目首次状态会议将变得更加确定。


步骤5：定义关键成功因素
每个项目团队成员必须知道项目成功能带来什么。花点时间，对每个要求成功的细项定义明确的条件。并与项目所有人验证你的清单。

步骤6：确定项目启动会议的时间
重要的是，所有项目团队成员参加启动会议。对每个参与者发出一个有首选日期与时间的沟通计划，及万一团队成员不能参加的备选方案。

在这里，你的目标是汇集了整个团队的想法，因此你的团队成员在项目开始时，能听到相同的信息。指示所有的参与者在指定的日子寻找会议的材料，并为之准备评审会议。

如有必要，你一确定固定的日期和时间，就安排会议室和支持电话会议的电话服务。计划一个90分钟的会议。
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个人注解：
在最近的项目里，我有来自四个部门、五个城市、七个不同办公地点的12个团队成员。在这个案例里，在同一会议室召集所有的团队成员开会不总是可行的。通过预先准备一致的会议议程，提供支持性的文件，和制定会议的流程，你能主导一个使所有参与者关注同一个目标的启动会议，即使当许多人都不互相了解、认识。
步骤7:发送启动会议材料给所有参与者
在你指定的日期，发送会议材料的文件包给每一个参与者，包括：

5. 会议日期和时间，与电话号码
6. 会议议程
7. 项目参与者的联系信息
8. 项目计划草稿

要求每个人仔细评估项目计划。指示团队成员将有额外的信息将在启动会议上讨论，并且每个人应当熟悉他或她的部分。解释在会议中将有Q&A部分去回答任何问题。

步骤8：识别关键问题和项目依赖
在启动会议前，评估项目计划，并对你想要在会议上解释的要点制定注释。有关的细项包括潜在的瓶颈，冲突问题，风险区域等。

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下一个是什么？
在你准备完成后，下一部是知道如何进行你的启动会议。在这个系列的第二部分，我们将详述领导项目启动会议的最好的方法。
备注：Mike Sisco 是亚特兰大MDE公司的首席执行官，MDE是一家从事IT管理咨询与培训的的公司。如要更多地了解Mike的管理观点，请参见MDE公司的IT经理发展系列。

翻译：张驰

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