Starting a new project can be confusing and take a long time to get off the ground. A robust planning and reporting process run by professional project managers is necessary for large projects with many dependencies and multiple stakeholders. However, even smaller projects and initiatives have similar needs. If you are in a leadership position, you are responsible for the project direction, structure and plan.

Structure

FOGLAMP provides a simple structure for small projects or initiatives. It is also a good template for large projects. It is an acronym that stands for the following.

• Focus - what is it you want to solve, avoid or achieve? What is your objective?
• Oversight - how will you oversee this project? Who else needs to join you?
• Goals - what are the goals and intermediate milestones?
• Leadership - who will lead the project, and what support do they need?
• Abilities - what mix of skill and representation of constituents do you need?
• Means - how will the Team be successful? What additional resources does the Team need for success?
• Process - what change models or structured process does the Team need to follow? How will the Team become familiar with the process?

For example, many years ago, my previous organization undertook a massive initiative to improve its Net Promoter Score (NPS). That initiative can be framed in the FOGLAMP structure as follows.

• Focus: Improve client retention so sales can focus on winning new accounts and growing the top-line revenue.
• Oversight: Engineering directors and managers, with Sales partnership, will manage the effort.
• Goals: Improve NPS from 48 to 62 by Oct 31st, 2015.
• Leadership: The SVP of Engineering will lead the engineering effort. The SVP of Sales will partner to provide additional cover for large clients.
• Abilities: The effort will need Product Managers, Technical Architects, and Engineering Managers.
• Means: Each technology team will improve its core Engineering practices, partner with the client to build the right product, and deliver high-quality releases iteratively. Some teams may need training on the Lean software development mindset.
• Process: The Engineering leadership team will use the 4DX methodology to focus intensely on execution. Other teams will adopt or refine their agile delivery methods. Team members will receive training on 4DX methodology and the SVP of Engineering will act as a 4DX coach.

Perspective

The initial stages of the project can greatly benefit from multiple perspectives because it avoids the leader's personal bias about thinking more about some aspects while giving little thought to others. A good set of user personas to consider would be Prioritizers, Planners, Arrangers, and Visualizers. Each persona tends to think about different aspects of a new project.

• Prioritizers would ask about goals, deadlines, current data, and success metrics.
• Planners would ask about the delivery methodology, the completion criteria, and the communication strategy.
• Arrangers would ask about the project stakeholders, determine who else needs to be involved, and understand who can support in achieving the project goals.
• Visualizers would ask about the gaps between the current and desired states of the project, the project's purpose or objective (why it matters), and what barriers need to be addressed.

Elaborating the project structure based on the different perspectives leads to a well-rounded strategy.

References

• The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins
• Your Team May Have Too Many Prioritizers and Planners