Project kickoff checklist

Kickoff exists to settle the things that are expensive to settle later: what done means, who decides, and what happens when scope changes.

Settle what done means

Write down the acceptance criteria for the project, not just its deliverables. "A working integration" and "an integration that passes these five tests" are different commitments and one of them is arguable.

If this cannot be written at kickoff, that is the finding. It means discovery is not finished, and proceeding anyway is a decision worth making explicitly.

Project kickoff checklist, in three chapters

Name who decides

One named approver per deliverable, with a stated turnaround. Approval by committee with no owner is the single most common cause of delay, and it is invisible in the plan.

Also agree what happens when they are unavailable. Two weeks of leave in the middle of a delivery is normal and should not be a surprise.

Read next

Project kickoff checklist, answered.

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