Purpose

The kickoff meeting is one of the most critical elements of the planning phase, because this is the meeting at which team members, project managers, vendors, and the customer gather together for the first time. It is the opportunity to set the stage for the remainder of the relationship. Thus, the kickoff meeting agenda becomes one of the first true planning documents to be shared universally with all project stakeholders. It provides the outline of what will happen at the kickoff meeting.

Application

A kickoff meeting agenda is used for both the internal and external kickoff meetings to inform participants about the topics to be covered, the schedule, and the general intent of the meeting. It is provided, in advance, to all participants to allow them time to evaluate the meeting approach and to determine if there is any supplemental information they will need to gather prior to the meeting.

These meetings can be used internally to ensure that all participants convey the same messages to the customer. They can be used with external stakeholders to build a sense of excitement about the project and to ensure that the project organization’s vision for the effort is aligned with the vision of the customer. Internal and external kickoff meetings are normally different meetings with different objectives. The common elements for both include the effort to build the team and the clarification of project objectives.

Content

Kickoff meetings must include a general overview of the project and the project organization’s approach to delivering the project. But the meeting often affords the first (and in some cases, only) opportunity for all of the project stakeholders to be introduced and to clarify their roles in the project. An outline for a rather exhaustive kickoff meeting may also include a lot of initial planning activities as well.

Sample Kickoff Meeting Agenda

1.0 Welcome and Project Overview

The welcome is often conducted by the project manager, but this task may also fall to a senior-level executive within the organization. Some organizations prefer to have high-level executives introduce the project to give the participants a sense of the relative level of importance of the effort.

The overview provided here should draw directly from the contract, statement of work, or memorandum of understanding that is driving the effort. Although the project organization’s approach to the work may be discussed at a high level, this is a general statement of scope and intent.

2.0 Introductions: Roles and Responsibilities

The introduction of team members and their roles may afford an opportunity for team-building activities. Team members should identify not only their organizations, but also the nature of the work they will conduct on the project; this may provide an opportunity for team-building activities through shared introductions (having team members talk with and introduce each other) or through other creative introduction approaches.

Regardless of the nature of the introductions, they should be time constrained; otherwise, this activity can potentially affect the remainder of the meeting’s schedule if not monitored and controlled well.

This component may be conducted by the customer and/or project sponsor. They present their views on what they believe the project should accomplish and how the effort will be accomplished. This allows the customer and/or sponsor to introduce their vision of the condition of their organization after the project is completed. It can also serve as affirmation of the project organization’s approach as the meeting continues.

A brief, time-limited question-and-answer session allows the stakeholders to affirm their understanding of the project intent.

5.0 Project Approach

This component will be conducted by the project manager or his designee to review how the project organization intends to achieve the project intent. This should be a high-level review of a variety of project components, including schedule, shared commitments (between the project and customer organizations), and communications strategies to ensure the best possible outcome. This is frequently the single longest component of the kickoff meeting.

6.0 Approach Q&A

A brief, time-limited question-and-answer session allows the stakeholders to affirm their understanding of the project approach.

7.0 Breakout Reviews

In larger projects, it is often necessary to break out the attendees into respective project areas or functional groups to allow for a more detailed analysis of the approach. If this is the case, the project manager should have a direct representative on each of the subteams, with the intent that they will report back on their findings and discussions in that group. Those subteam leaders will serve as the smaller group facilitators, and should have a prepared review of what they will discuss and the scope of their project efforts.

A brief, time-limited question-and-answer session allows the subteam members to affirm their understanding of what was said in the breakout reviews.

9.0 Stakeholder Commitments

During  the  Intent,  Approach,  and  Breakout  sessions,  significant  project commitments are often made, including promises to deliver support, documentation,  or resources within a given time frame. As the meeting nears its close, these commitments should be documented and reviewed to ensure a common understanding of what activities are pending and what action items will need to be addressed.

10.0 Progress and Next Steps

The project manager or senior executive should close the meeting by reiterating the next steps on the project, including any significant activity in the next week or month. There should also be a recapitulation of the accomplishments made during the meeting to reinforce the value of the group activity.

Approaches

Depending on the scope of the project, meetings of this nature may last an hour or several days. In any case, the determination on duration should reflect the relative project size and complexity. A 6-week project involving 3,000 team members may, out of necessity, need a 2-day kickoff. A 2-year project with a team of three may only need an hour or two of review to get the project going. In addition, the project team should ensure that the right meeting is being held. Internal kickoff meetings allow for a common understanding of internal operations, communications, and interactions in a free and open environment. External kickoff meetings integrate customer and project organizations, and as such, some of the communications must be couched in terms that are acceptable in both environments. A more cautious approach to sharing information is necessitated by the external kickoff meeting.

Considerations

An invitation to a kickoff meeting can be seen as a badge of honor by those who are invited, because it indicates their role in the project is sufficient to warrant the invitation.  Thus, kickoff meeting invitations may become politically charged, because some representatives will want to be invited simply to affirm their political standing in the organization(s). Clear criteria should be established regarding who should attend the meeting so that the rationale used to create the attendees list is unambiguous.

Also, while internal kickoff meetings allow for the free flow of discussion about internal organizational machinations, the external kickoff meetings should not. In some instances, it will be necessary to coach team members (especially subcontractors) about what is appropriate for discussion in the external kickoff meeting and what is not.