The following template is useful for cross-functional teams when kicking off a new project with our client-partners.
Link to speclet info.
Who are the main client stakeholders? Fill out the following table:
| Stakeholder | Role | Contact | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Title | email/phone |
List the client and Lab Zero team connected to this project. Here's an example:
| Teammate | Role | Contact | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Greacen | Team Lead | [email protected] | |
| Dean Baker | Design | [email protected] | |
| Matt Wilson | CTO | [email protected] | |
| Kate Bennet | Product Manager | [email protected] | |
| Ned Holets | Tech Lead | [email protected] |
Are there key meetings, milestones or cycles? List them here. A table or bulleted list — use the format that communicates it best. Are there scheduled team meetings such as stand-ups, design reviews, product demos? What is the cadence of those?
Example project cadence:
| Day | Ceremonies |
|---|---|
| Monday | Standup |
| Tuesday | Standup, Design Review |
| Wednesday | Standup, Storytime |
| Thursday | Standup, Demo, Retro, Planning |
| Friday | Standup |
List the key artifacts and activities of the project. We recommend an alternative RACI scheme (see below) to describe how the team will work together.
RACI (alternative scheme): There is an alternative coding, less widely published but used by some practitioners and process mapping software, which modifies the application of the R and A codes of the original scheme. The overall methodology remains the same but this alternative avoids potential confusion of the terms accountable and responsible, which may be understood by management professionals but not always so clearly differentiated by others:
Responsible: Those responsible for the performance of the task. There should be exactly one person with this assignment for each task.
Assists: Those who assist/partner to complete a task. Usually people with this role share authorship.
Consulted: Those whose opinions are sought; and with whom there is two-way communication. People with this role can still have extensive involvement in an activity or artifact.
Informed: Those who are kept up-to-date on progress; and with whom there is one-way communication.
Each task/activity should have a “author.” Additional roles can be described as “contributor”, “informed”, or “test." Other roles can also be defined. Use the chart below as an example and starting point, but feel free to change as necessary to reflect the team’s agreements and the engagement.
| Artifact & Activities | Client Partner | Product | Design | Enginteering | DevOps | Business Agility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metrics and hypotheses | responsible | consulted | consulted | |||
| Project coordination | responsible | assists | assists | |||
| Stakeholder management | assists | responsible | assists | assists | ||
| Team health | assists | responsible | assists | assists | assists | assists |
| Speclet | responsible | consulted | consulted | |||
| Charter | responsible | consulted | consulted | |||
| Personas | assists | responsible | consulted | |||
| Alignment maps | assists | responsible | consulted | |||
| Epics | responsible | assists | informed | |||
| Design system | consulted | responsible | consulted | |||
| User stories | responsible | assists | consulted | |||
| Wireframes | consulted | responsible | consulted | |||
| Interaction design | consulted | responsible | assists | |||
| Information architecture | consulted | responsible | consulted | |||
| Technical architecture | consulted | consulted | responsible | |||
| Code | acceptance test | acceptance test | responsible | |||
| CI/CD | consulted | responsible | ||||
| Agile practice assessment | assists | assists | assists | assists | responsible | |
| Agile coaching | responsible | |||||
| Final delivery | responsible | assists | assists |
List the key tools to be used on the project. If there are any tools that should be avoided, consider noting that below the table.
| Tool | Location / Notes |
|---|---|
| Internal Team Email List | Team email alias |
| Team Calendar | Calendar |
| Documents | Google docs location. Is there a scheme to organize the documents? |
| Task Tracking | Trello? Jira? |
| Internal Chat | Slack channel |
| Design | Sketch |
| Prototype | Invision? |
| Harvest | Project for Harvest tracking |
| Source Code | GitHub |
| Client Tools | Are there any client tools we are required to use? |
List anything that we are not sure about or questions that frequently arise. As we get answers, we can list them here.
Q. For example, this has come up several times during discussions.
A. Here’s the answer.