Insights and inspiration for project professionals

  1) Project vision document (Project Charter) 

During the workshop, we had to create a Project Charter (Project Summary) which is like a high level vision document for the project and gives the project a direction and destination.  

The project has the following sections:  

• ProjectGoal: Why this project & goal (SMART definition)
• Benefits: What are the measurable benefits?   

-   Eg: Good benefit:  Sales increase by 10% for three years  

• Main requirements and quality expectations

-   What are the expectations from a user point of view?

• A rough estimate of cost and time
• Major risks (usually 2 to 3 is enough)
• Who is who in the project 

2) Project Configuration Map / WBS 

I had heard of a work breakdown structure but I had never seen one created or even a good example.  The trainer started off with some very simple examples which made it easy to understand. Then we had to do a first WBS exercise and this was easier than I expected.  Finally, we did the big WBS for the scenario project which took about 20 minutes.   

We were then encouraged to look at what other teams had done and learn from them. This was our WBS after 20 minutes and I can also see the benefit of doing this exercise in a team. 

3) Gathering requirements 

Again, this is something that I have not done before and we did a simple exercise to understand the format used to the gather requirements. In total, we did requirements for 4 products so I think I have the hang of this. This is the example of the layout we used, as you can see, we keep it simple. 

What is next after this training?

I have now volunteered to help run a project (my role: project support) for a non-profit company which is going to organise an European event for a board game club and this event will be held in Belgium.   

This is way out of my comfort zone but I feel have the basic skills to get started and know from the course that the best way to learn project management is to practice it and have a mentor.    

I have also set myself a goal to give this workshop to others and I hope I can do this in the next 6 months. 

You can contact me on:  ridvaniyildiz@gmail.com