Checklist of questions to the project: start, implementation, final - and 10 tips "flying"

Check your project: do you fly or think you are flying?

Below are questions that you should ask yourself at the start of the project and from time to time throughout it.

Test questions at the start of the project:

1. What exactly needs to be done at the current stage? Generally? Are there clearly defined goals for each stage? How do you determine that goals are achieved? Is the current status consistent with the stated plans and goals, or should they be adjusted?
2. Are these goals realistic?
3. What happens if the goals are not achieved on time? What is the action plan?
4. How important is this project? For example, does your company's position in the market depend on it?
5. What benefits will the project bring to you, society and investors?
6. Is the project well planned? Do all of your team understand the points of the plan in the same way?
7. Do we need external experts, for example, lawyers?
8. Does the team have experience working together? Who will coordinate the team? Is it important for the project to work together - or is it possible to work alone? Is every team member responsible for the work of everyone else?
9. Is it possible to reduce the size of the team? If not, why not? If so, why is this not done?
10. How will you compensate for force majeure with staff, for example, what happens if your lead developer breaks his arm?
11. Does everyone in the team benefit from the project? Who motivated than? What will people do after the delivery of the project?
12. Does everyone listen clearly to the leader? Does the manager have enough time for the project? Does he have the necessary managerial and administrative skills, authority in the team?
13. Is there a plan for intermediate results? How will you report to each other and the investor?
14. Who, when and how should be informed about the progress of the project? Who will report when the checkpoint is reached?

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At the implementation stage:

1. Is everything good in the team? Motivation does not change? Is the manual normal? No conflicts? Everyone understands the goals in the same way and know that it’s profitable for everyone to do this project with maximum efficiency?
2. Is there enough time for changes or urgent new features?
3. Is there a clear project tracking?
4. Does everyone understand the priorities of their tasks? Are priorities at all?
5. If the plan changes, does someone update the actual data in it, or do the documents no longer correspond to reality?
6. Is someone documenting the project - or is it postponed to the end?
7. Is everything ok with costs? Do not go beyond the budget?
8. Everything is OK with given indicators? Go according to plan?
9. Are there any other problems? Do I need to change something in the team or plans?
10. It is possible at the current stage to achieve the goal, or you can come close to it at this stage closely, or at the end of the stage to understand, they say, everything is completely wrong?

In the final:

1. We did everything right? Goal achieved?
2. What caused unplanned difficulties?
3. How is the acceptance done, do you know the exact procedure and the list of persons who determine the readiness of the project? How to determine that this release - the final?
4. What has everyone learned?

Generally

A new project within a company or a startup is a fairly large-scale task that requires the synthesis of knowledge from different areas, about which little is known, and all this implies a rather high financial risk.

When working on a new start-up project, there are three criteria that limit the ability of the team:

• Quality.
• Project Costs
• Deadline.

Obviously, you need to try to meet all three criteria: to issue a project with a sufficient level of quality, not to go beyond the financial plan and pass the project on time. Error in the timing of the delivery of the project is not always critical, but it always shows that there are problems either with the implementation, or they will be with the money.

10 simple tips:

• Set only measurable specific goals and clearly understand how they will be assessed.
• The leader must first motivate the team and know the project, and only then - for example, be able to write code. Putting a technician without communication skills with a team on the role of a manager is not the best idea.
• Always break the project into easily achievable parts that have some independent value. For example, for social services: core, site, iOS application, Android application, API.
• Always plan with a margin of time and money. Never put in the plan resources that you actually do not have (more precisely, never work on such plans).
• Do not forget that the leading persons of the project need creative pauses - this is up to 5% of their time. Another 3-5% of resources go to various minor breakdowns, diseases and so on.
• Taking a new person to a team in a stressful situation is not always a good idea. Evaluate all the pros and cons, do not seek to "heal" the project with new people.
• The correct allocation of manager's time is as follows: 30% - planning and control, 25% - team coordination, 20% - communication with external contractors, 10% - communication with the investor, the remaining 15% - work with documents and administration.
• Always keep a hand on the pulse: begin every day by assessing whether everything is in order with the project and whether it is moving there.
• Do not check the quality after the iteration, but create conditions for each part of the project to be sufficiently suitable in quality. If someone does the work that needs to be redone - this is not work, but a waste of your resources.
• Spend time with each employee: your attention often helps to solve problems before they appear. More importantly, a person will know that his work is important - it has a good effect on motivation. It sounds a little silly, but on marathons it becomes very important.

I hope these simple questions will help you not to think "well, somehow break through", and immediately clearly understand whether to work in the chosen direction.