In the early project phase shortly after the decision to start a project is made, the foundation for a project is laid. The appropriate and complete design of this foundation has a decisive importance for the success of the project. During the project setup I support the solution manager or project manager and bring in my good and bad experiences from numerous projects for you, so that mistakes are avoided and successes are transferred to your project.

In Project Setup, costs are kept low. The effort and degree of complexity arising in the project is recognized at an early stage and can thus be put to the test at any time in the best agile sense. Necessary resources and project structures are gradually integrated only when they are needed. In the course of the project setup, value is already added at the highest experience level with the development of the basic system. Project Setup lays a clean strategic foundation for the implementation of business requirements through the use of high-level skills.

Components of the Project Setup

For the Project Setup I offer the following services:

• Check project prerequisites from the portfolio level or a SOW/order.
• Selection of the project method
• Design of the project structure
• Participation in the definition and procurement of project hardware, premises and IT resources
• Participation in the staffing of the core team
• Participation in the definition and setup of the project system landscape
  • Setup of the project management tool with
    • Mapping of project specifications from the portfolio level
    • User setup
    • Workflow setup
  • Document Management/Wiki Setup
    • Documentation of processes, systems and solutions
  • Communication tools setup
  • Setup of the system instances
  • Setup of further project-specific tools
  • Procurement of accesses, authorizations and licenses
• Participation in the development of the operator concept
• Contribution to the system/solution architecture
  • Inclusion of the strategic goals
  • Definition of the high-level target processes
• Participate in the budgeting of requirement components from the portfolio level to the team level
• Participation in RoI analysis with calculation of a break-even point
• Participation in the composition and dimensioning of control teams, programs and development teams
• Definition of regular events for the alignment
• Definition of readiness criteria for requirements from the business units
• Definition of the test procedures
• Definition of the review processes
• Definition of the project documentation
• Preparation of control instruments
• Organization and participation in the project kickoff events
  • at Large Solution level
  • at program level
  • at team level

Demand

If before you read this list of possible services you wondered how much there was to do, you may have realized after reviewing it that there is quite a bit to do. All these tasks fall on the toes of a project team in the initial phase and thus delay the progress of the project. Many projects begin with missed milestones, technical, methodological and organizational false starts and subsequent rebuilding with the need for adaptation recognized too late – while costs for personnel, infrastructure, etc. already fully impact the budget. With a professional project setup, control and development teams enter the race well prepared and thus enable the project to achieve the expected efficiency. All teams are productive with the completion of the KickOff and can use the prepared infrastructure operationally from the first minute.

Accompanying Agile Coaching

The project setup should definitely be accompanied by Agile coaching and training of the core team, because a core team will subsequently significantly influence steering teams of the programs and development teams.

Duration

As is common in agile, a project setup can be difficult to impossible to estimate in terms of time. However, the tasks will be implemented as soon as possible. A decisive factor here is the short-term availability of the resources required during setup. However, the positive aspect of Project Setup is always that the costs incurred in the process have a minimal impact on the project budget compared to the costs incurred when the project is at full strength.