Making a Party out of Project Management: Chapter 1 - An Idea for a Party

Project Initiation

One bright and sunny summer morning, fifteen-year-old Abby was eating a bowl of cereal with her little brother and watching the world begin the day outside. The birds were chirping, and the neighbor cat was out for a jaunt through the back yard. The neighbors behind the back yard were scurrying about, setting up tables, blowing up balloons and festooning their deck railing with colorful banners.

               “Hmm…”, Abby thought to herself. “That party looks like it’ll be a lot of fun. I wish I were invited to that!”

               Abby looked inside again as her mom came into the kitchen, stopping to flip the calendar over to the next month. There was a day with a big orange circle drawn around it, a day of big significance for the family. Little brother Nathan was hitting the big one-zero, and he couldn’t be more excited! His eyes popped as he saw the calendar flip and his birthday just over a week away.

               Then, he heard his favorite cartoon starting downstairs and raced off to watch it. As Abby was finishing her cereal, a great idea suddenly hit her.

               “Mom?”, Abby asked. “Would it be okay for me to throw the party for Nathan next week? I mean, you could still bake the cake, and Dad could still grill food, but I think I’d really like to try throwing a big party!”

               Her mom turned, “Sure, that sounds like a delightful idea! But you know, throwing a party is a lot of work, and this is your brother’s one and only tenth birthday. This is a big deal.” She bent to put Nathan’s bowl and spoon in the dishwasher. “Tell you what, let’s talk about it more this afternoon when your dad is home and your brother’s at baseball. We wouldn’t want him to overhear and ruin the surprise, would we?” she smiled.

               Late in the afternoon, Abby’s dad returned home and the three of them sat down to discuss Abby’s idea. They talked about what a great party for Nathan would be like. What kinds of food should there be? What kinds of games? What would make it the best, most unforgettable party possible for him? In project management, determining what to do on a project and why it’s worth doing is called the business case. This usually involves financial estimates to show that a project will be profitable for a company, but that’s pretty advanced and we’ll just skip over that in this story. The joy this party would bring Nathan made a plenty strong business case for Abby’s parents to want to do it. Let’s say the same about the common practice of writing a lengthy, detailed contract between the company performing the project and the company paying for it. We’ll keep it simple this time and say that Abby promised her parents she’d do a good job throwing the party and that Nathan would be thrilled on his birthday. To give them some extra peace of mind, though, she described her vision for the party in a written project scope statement and would share that with them as part of her first project deliverable.

               As more basic, high-level thoughts were discussed, Abby continued to put ideas on paper. She made the first big deliverable that project managers create when starting a project, the project charter. In it, a project manager shares the project scope statement, what the company needs from the project, who will be involved, and why the project is worth doing. There are also some other elements (risks, financial estimates, constraints and assumptions) included in the charter, which will be covered in more detail later. And while she didn’t know if she would need to hire any help yet, Abby knew she might need to add a section in the charter for procurement documents, which includes any contracts, invoices or receipts documenting hired help. The project charter is the document that officially brings a project into existence and would officially make Abby the project manager of the party once it was approved by the project sponsors, who in this case were Abby’s parents.

Abby’s project charter for throwing Nathan’s 10th birthday party.

               Now that Abby had a rough idea of what the party would look like, she had to summarize for herself, and for Mom and Dad, what work would be done to throw the party. What would be the key things for the project team to accomplish? What specifically would or would not be included as part of the work to throw the party? Abby knew her parents were trusting her with a very special day for her little brother, so she wanted to show them that she had a very clear idea about what she and her helpers were going to do. Writing the charter to show her parents a thoughtful plan was just what Abby needed to do to give them that reassurance[1].

[1] On a larger project, this idea is detailed further in a document known as a Statement of Work (SOW).

             Abby’s parents wanted her to continue writing out her plan for the party so they could review it and help her to ensure it would be a big success. To do this, she needed access to some tools and resources. So, her mom took her to the office upstairs and showed her where the office supplies were. She also pulled up the family address book (sort of a database of information Abby could use to plan the party), so Abby would have addresses for sending invitations and phone numbers to call ahead and ask relatives to help with setting up the party. These resources, among other factors like the surrounding culture a project operates in and the skills that project team members have to offer are what project managers call enterprise environmental factors (EEFs).

               That evening, the neighbors out back had a great party. It was a big anniversary celebration for grandma and grandpa, and Abby was amazed at how terrific it looked and how much fun everyone had. The next morning, she went over to the Smith’s house and asked Mrs. Smith if she had written up a plan for the party. Sure enough, Mrs. Smith had made quite a few really helpful notes, including recipes and lists of supplies and a schedule of when to have everything ready. She offered to loan these to Abby and Abby graciously accepted, agreeing to bring them back after Nathan’s party was over. When she got home, Abby’s mom also shared some recipes and information from planning a party a year earlier, including some receipts to show roughly how much different things would cost. Templates, records and information or data from previous projects, instructions for how to complete elements of the project, and norms for what to do and when on a project are all known as organizational process assets (OPAs). They inform project managers on how they should expect to get a project done at their company.

               With a good general idea of a party in mind, it was time for Abby to start thinking

about the limits she had to work with, as well as what she didn’t know for sure and would require her to make a best guess. For example, what would be the maximum amount of money permissible to spend on the party? If she planned to hold the party at the local park, would she still have time to reserve a pavilion with a barbeque grill? The maximum amount of money available to spend is a boundary that project managers call a constraint, and the expectation that Abby can plan on a pavilion still being available to reserve is known as an assumption. For any project to be successful, it is imperative that a project manager always remain on the lookout for new constraints and assumptions affecting their project, as well as to ensure they stay within the constraints and that their assumptions remain true, or that a backup option is available if an assumption eventually becomes no longer true. As assumptions and constraints are accumulated, they are included (at least in summary) as part of the project charter.

After taking some time to consider those, Abby also wrote down some acceptance criteria, which was determined based on information in the project charter. The following had to be true for the party to be considered a success:

-        The party has to be safe

-        The party has to be inviting

-        The party has to be fun

-        The party has to be ready on time

-        The party has to stay within budget

Based on the acceptance criteria, Abby listed a number of deliverables for the party, which were things that had to be provided in order for the acceptance criteria to be met:

-        Shelter from weather

-        Timely invites with clear and accurate directions

-        Food safety measures in place

-        Games for the kids to play

-        A clean, comfortable seating area

-        A project schedule to keep planning and prep on track

-        A budget spreadsheet to track expenditures

Abby also wanted to be clear on certain constraints that limited what could be done for the party: there would be a budget limit, the deadline of Nathan’s birthday, and safety concerns, among other things that would put boundaries on the scope that could be completed for the party. She added these to a register (sometimes called a log) of all assumptions and constraints for the project, which also included the initial constraints listed on the charter.

It was tempting to think that everything would just happen as Abby was imagining it would, but she knew that was far from a guarantee. To be prepared for the unexpected, Abby acknowledged some assumptions she was making: the weather would be nice, or at least okay, enough people would be free to attend the party to make it a fun and lively time, and if she decided a vendor would be needed, that they would show up both on time and prepared to provide what was needed.

               Abby and her parents talked more about the main ideas they had for the vision of the party. Then, they had to think about who would be involved. Who would be invited? Who would help make the party happen? A project manager creates and then keeps adding to a master list of everyone somehow involved in or affected by the project, in a document called the stakeholder register. This document lists who the stakeholders are, what their role or involvement is in the project, and how much interest and influence they have. It also contains contact information for reaching these people when needed.

               Abby worked diligently on her stakeholder register to ensure it was as complete as possible. Of course, she needed to make sure all of Nathan’s friends were invited and knew when and where the party would be. The extended family would be there as well, and older relatives could be asked to help with some of the preparations for the day. Some of Abby’s friends were older siblings of Nathan’s friends, and they wanted to help the younger kids have a great time, too. So, Abby could get help from some of her friends. Of course, Mom and Dad could be counted on to help, not just with the work, but also with the very important matter of paying for the party. If Abby needed something, they could provide the funds to buy it and help to get the items from the store, provided they agreed with her that the items were a good buy. In this role, Abby’s parents would again act as the project sponsors. They would approve the budget she had for the party and provide mentorship when she ran into a challenge that would be unreasonable to try to handle herself, just like any good project sponsor would do.

A sample of Abby’s stakeholder register.

               With stakeholders identified and basic information about each one recorded, it was time for Abby to analyze the relationship each stakeholder had to the project. What was their role in the party? How interested were they in it? Did they have specific expectations or influence over the party? Thinking about this helped Abby to get a better sense of what working with each stakeholder might be like. This sort of analysis is important for ensuring stakeholder needs are met as well as possible, and for adjusting a stakeholder’s level of engagement when needed. For example, instead of just showing up to the party and having fun, a relative might wish to contribute some kind of help to make it a success. Thinking ahead about possibilities like this would help Abby to manage the party’s stakeholders well.

               After considering all of this, Abby had a good general idea of what would be needed for Nathan’s party. She would need to figure out details surrounding food, come up with some games for everyone to enjoy at the party, and think through where it would be and how everything would be set up at the party’s location. With the support of her sponsors and initial documentation of the project to be completed, our project manager Abby was ready to begin planning her project in detail. She would need to start by gathering her team and coming up with detailed requirements for setting up the party. Lots of planning would be needed to know exactly what everyone would have to do for the party and when. And that was before any party setup could begin. Nonetheless, Abby felt ready to get to work and knew that she didn’t have much time to waste before her little brother’s big birthday would arrive!

Next post in the series: Making a Party out of Project Management: Chapter 2 - Planning the Party - Part 1 of 3