Project Kickoff and Definition Training Best Practices

“The project kickoff and definition was excellent. LSA’s Project Management facilitator is one of the best I have ever worked with.

His efforts and work in teaching complex and intensive Project Management principles across all levels and backgrounds within our organization have been of the highest value.”
Leslie Guzman | Learning and Development | Roche LLC

“LSA’s ability to do an effective project postmortem and then help us to use those insights to define and plan our next strategic project were invaluable.

Their practical approach and built-for-purpose project kickoff and definition methodology have definitely taken our project definition, project planning, and project management skills to the next level.

I bet they helped us to move 4 times faster than we would have without their help.”
Elizabeth Smith, PMP |Senior Project & Portfolio Manager | Applegate

Project Definition and Kickoff
We believe that successful projects should be the norm — not the exception.

We know that 31% of the difference between project success and failure depends upon how well you define and kickoff the project from the start. Yet, project leaders and project teams continue to start projects without clear and agreed upon goals, roles, inter-dependencies, and success metrics.

Project teams report that this lack of upfront clarity causes confusion, frustration, disengagement, and inefficiencies. In fact, recent project management research across industries found that on average:

17% of projects went so poorly that they threatened the company’s survival
45% of projects run over budget
7% of projects miss final project milestones
56% of projects deliver less value than originally predicted
70% of organizations have suffered at least one large failed project in the last year
The best organizations at projects are 10 times more successful than the worst

Project Kickoff and Definition Training Approach
We have a proven track record of helping leading organizations define and kickoff successful projects of all shapes, sizes, and levels of complexity. We utilize the following project kickoff and definition best practices to ensure that your projects start off on the right foot:

1. Pre-Work

Review past project postmortem results
Review current project context to-date
Interview key stakeholders
Conduct online 27 point Project Assessment and Diagnostic

2. Get Project Team Aligned

Based upon interview and survey results, review and finalize session design with project leadership
Facilitate a highly interactive working session with key stakeholders to define project success.
Create final deliverable document with agreed upon strategies, decisions, and actions regarding the Project Sponsor, Business Case, Goals, Success Metrics, Stakeholders, Resources, Scope, Assumptions, and Communication Plan

3. Agree Upon Next Steps

Prioritize barriers to success
Agree upon the first next steps to take in the next 90 days

Note: for some clients we also use additional time to create high level project plans that include identifying and prioritizing project risks, creating a work breakdown structure, establishing task sequence constraints, estimating the tasks on network diagram, calculating an initial schedule, and reviewing resource viability.

To speak with an LSA Expert and learn about the project success, please contact us.

Related Information

Thanks for a great and valuable session. The Project Management expertise and methodology that you brought to the table was perfectly targeted to our needs and our company. You definitely helped us launch an important step in driving best practice company standards around project management. I highly recommend this workshop to anyone looking to improve project management skills and methodologies.

Bill Thayer
VP Field Operations

LSA recently designed and delivered a project post mortem for a highly strategic project with a group of 25 team members from engineering, design, marketing, product management, sales, manufacturing, purchasing, business development, research, and finance. The pre-workshop diagnostic, interviews, and experiential session greatly exceeded our expectations.

We were able to honestly and effectively get everything out on the table, agree upon key lessons, and create a targeted action plan that made sense for our unique situation, team, and culture. The whole process made a very complex and potentially political situation a big success. We could not have done the retrospective without LSA.

Eric Vernon
Director of Operations

LSA did a great job. The project management solution was really well done from both a content and approach perspective. Overall a very positive experience that provided a lot of value. They really understood the art and science of project management and the specifics of our industry.

Laxmi Peri
VP Technology & Product Development

We turned to LSA Global to help us take our project risk management practices to the next level. As we continue to grow and our projects are increasing significantly in complexity, it is imperative that we incorporate risk management best practices deeper into our Delivery and Project Management methodologies to continue to increase productivity, efficiency, and client satisfaction. I am really happy with the results and would recommend LSA to anyone looking to take project risk management to the next level.

Scott Wassmer
US Director of Production

The project management training program was fantastic. It could not have gone any better. It was extremely helpful to me as a manager to be strategic during a time of explosive growth and change. It was fully customized to our industry and our needs, everyone came out of it with a solid direction of next steps. We are excited to take the next steps with LSA Global and to implement the project management best practices in a way that works for our unique culture.

Karen M. Inzilla
Director, Sales Operations

LSA’s ability to do an effective project postmortem and then help us to use those insights to define and plan our next strategic project were invaluable. Their practical approach and built-for-purpose project kickoff and definition methodology have definitely taken our project definition, project planning, and project management skills to the next level.

I bet they helped us to move 4 times faster than we would have without their help.

Elizabeth Smith, PMP
Senior Project & Portfolio Manager

LSA’s Project Management facilitator is one of the best I have ever worked with. His efforts and work in teaching complex and intensive Project Management principles across all levels and backgrounds within our organization have been of the highest value.

Leslie Guzman
Learning and Development

We have found LSA to be highly responsive to meeting our unique project management training program needs. Their passion for high levels of customer satisfaction and quality align very closely with our core values.

Kudos to LSA Global for the program that they provided my team. It was exactly what I wanted, and your team did a great job of engaging our group and providing the solid Project Management skills that we need.

Laura McHugh
Director

We hired LSA to design and deliver a Project Post Mortem for sixty five key people on a mission critical project with a very tight turnaround. LSA’s ability to identify the key trends, leverage points, and next steps was remarkable.

They really got to the heart of the issues in a constructive and unbiased manner that exceeded our expectations.

It was not an easy task with so many skeptical people with different agendas, styles, experience, and perspectives. But they nailed it. Thank you!

Darrell Gallagher
Head of Studio

We recently designed and implemented two high value Project Management Workshops with LSA. The goal was to improve the fundamental project management skills for less experienced project managers and team members and to prepare our experienced project managers to become PMP certified. The programs were very well received and additional sessions have been requested. Both facilitators were excellent, building strong rapport with our scientists and taking time to encourage & answer questions. Based upon the results and the feedback around the company, the next workshops are already full. I highly recommend LSA to any company looking to take their project management skills to the next level.

Stacey Porter
Senior Manager Learning & Development