Key Parts of Project Initiation | Google Project Management Certificate
Summary
TLDRWelcome to the project initiation course with JuAnne, a senior program manager at Google. Learn the essentials of project management to kickstart your career. Discover how to define project goals, scope, deliverables, and success criteria, while engaging stakeholders and allocating resources effectively. Understand the importance of a well-planned initiation phase for a successful project outcome, and get ready to create your own project charter.
Takeaways
- 📚 The course focuses on initiating projects successfully and is ideal for those looking to start a career in project management.
- 🔍 It suggests reviewing foundational courses for a comprehensive understanding of project management basics.
- 🌐 The instructor, JuAnne, has extensive experience as a senior program manager at Google, working on diverse cross-functional projects.
- 🛠 The course will cover the steps for project initiation, including identifying project scope, goals, deliverables, and success criteria.
- 📈 Emphasis is placed on the importance of measuring project success to ensure requirements are met or exceeded.
- 🤝 Stakeholder identification is crucial, as they have a direct interest in the project's completion and success.
- 🛡 Tools for defining project roles, responsibilities, and resources are part of the course to streamline project management.
- 📝 Documentation is introduced as a means to prepare the team for project kickoff effectively.
- 💡 Initiation is the first phase of a project, critical for establishing a strong foundation and setting the project up for success.
- 💼 A cost-benefit analysis is essential to ensure the project's benefits outweigh its costs, involving discussions with stakeholders.
- 📋 The project charter is a key document that outlines the project's details, goals, and requirements, needing stakeholder approval to proceed.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the course introduced by JuAnne?
-The course focuses on initiating a project successfully, providing foundational knowledge for starting a career in project management.
Why is the foundational course recommended for those who haven't taken it yet?
-The foundational course is recommended because it covers the basics of project management, which is helpful for anyone wanting to start a career in this field.
What are some reasons people might be interested in this project management course?
-People might be interested in the course for various reasons such as preferring a specialized certification over a four-year degree, looking for an affordable way to stand out, or being interested in a career change.
What is JuAnne's professional background according to the script?
-JuAnne is a senior program manager at Google with eight years of experience, working on cross-functional projects involving various teams to build software for internal use and Google Cloud customers.
How did JuAnne's career in project management begin?
-JuAnne began her career as a liaison between customers and engineers, documenting requirements on software development projects, and gradually took on larger projects, managing timelines and coordinating teams, eventually becoming a project manager.
What is the importance of the initiation phase in a project as described by JuAnne?
-The initiation phase is crucial as it allows ideas to come together and form the beginnings of a plan for a project. It sets the stage for the project's success by establishing goals, scope, deliverables, and success criteria.
What is the purpose of identifying stakeholders during the initiation phase?
-Stakeholders have a direct interest in the project's completion and success. Identifying them helps in making informed decisions and ensures that their needs and expectations are considered throughout the project.
What is a project charter and why is it important?
-A project charter is a document that contains all the details of a project, including its goals and what is needed to accomplish them. It is important because it helps organize the project, set up a framework for what needs to be done, and communicate these details to others.
What is the role of a project manager during the initiation phase?
-The project manager's role during the initiation phase is to help identify the project goals, resources, and other details based on initial discussions with stakeholders, ensuring that all important pieces are in place to get the work done.
Why is it important to perform a cost-benefit analysis during the initiation phase?
-A cost-benefit analysis is important to determine if the expected value of a project, its benefits, outweigh the dollar cost. It helps ensure that the project outcomes will be worth the investment of time, money, and resources.
What are some examples of questions that might be asked to determine the benefits of a project?
-Examples of questions to determine benefits include: What value will the project create? How much money could it save or bring in? How much time will be saved? How will the user experience be improved?
What are some examples of questions that might be asked to determine the costs of a project?
-Examples of questions to determine costs include: How much time will people have to spend on the project? What are the one-time, ongoing, and long-term costs associated with the project?
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Project Management Course
The video script introduces a course focused on initiating projects successfully. JuAnne, the instructor, welcomes viewers and suggests reviewing foundational courses for project management basics. She highlights the course's relevance for those seeking a project management career, including those interested in specialized certifications or an affordable way to stand out in the job market. JuAnne shares her background as a senior program manager at Google, emphasizing her experience in cross-functional projects. The course will cover project initiation steps, including understanding project scope, goals, deliverables, and success criteria, as well as identifying stakeholders and utilizing tools for project management. The importance of a well-planned initiation phase is underscored, as it lays the groundwork for a project's success.
🔍 Key Components of Project Initiation
This paragraph delves into the importance of the initiation phase in project management, emphasizing clarity and alignment with stakeholders to avoid misunderstandings about project goals and outcomes. It discusses the necessity of a cost-benefit analysis to ensure project benefits outweigh costs, involving stakeholders in identifying value creation, savings, revenue, time saved, and user experience improvements. The paragraph outlines key components for successful project initiation, such as setting clear goals, defining project scope, establishing deliverables, determining success criteria, engaging stakeholders, and allocating resources. It also introduces the project charter, a document that encapsulates project details and requires stakeholder approval to proceed to the planning phase.
🎓 Completion and Further Learning Opportunities
The final paragraph of the script invites viewers to complete the video and access the full learning experience, which includes job search assistance and the opportunity to earn an official certificate. It provides a call to action to click on the icon for further engagement and to subscribe to the channel for more content from Google Career. This segment serves as a conclusion, encouraging viewers to continue their educational journey and make the most of the resources available to them.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Project Management
💡Initiation
💡Stakeholders
💡Scope
💡Deliverables
💡Success Criteria
💡Resources
💡Project Charter
💡Cost-Benefit Analysis
💡Cross-functional Projects
💡Career
Highlights
Introduction to the course on initiating a project successfully.
Recommendation to check out the foundational course for project management basics.
The course is designed for those looking to start a career in project management or seeking specialized certification.
Instructor JuAnne introduces herself with eight years of experience as a senior program manager at Google.
JuAnne's background includes working on cross-functional projects and managing timelines and teams.
The importance of a strong foundation in project management for a successful career.
Overview of the project initiation phase, which is crucial for forming the beginnings of a project plan.
Identification of project scope, goals, and deliverables as key components of initiation.
The necessity of measuring the success of a project to meet or exceed requirements.
Discussion on identifying stakeholders who have a direct interest in the project's success.
Introduction to tools for defining project roles, responsibilities, and resources.
Importance of proper initiation to avoid misunderstandings and ensure project success.
The role of the project manager in helping identify goals, resources, and details based on stakeholder discussions.
Consequences of improper initiation, such as underestimating resources or misaligned expectations of success.
The process of conducting a cost-benefit analysis to ensure project outcomes outweigh costs.
Key components of initiation including goals, scope, deliverables, success criteria, stakeholders, and resources.
The significance of creating a project charter to define the project and outline what is needed for its accomplishment.
The next steps in the course, including learning more about project charters and creating one.
Encouragement to access the full learning experience and earn an official certificate.
Transcripts
JUANNE: Hi, there.
Welcome.
This course is all about initiating a project
successfully.
If you haven't gone through our foundational course yet,
we recommend checking it out.
It covers the foundations of project management
and contains lots of helpful information
for anyone wanting to start a career in this field.
There are lots of people around the world like you
who are hoping to learn the skills to get a project
management role.
Maybe you'd prefer to take a specialized certification
rather than a four-year degree.
Maybe you're looking for an affordable way
to stand out among competition.
Maybe you're interested in changing your career.
Whatever your reason for being here,
we are glad you've joined us.
This program is rooted in the belief
that a strong foundation in project management
can help anyone start a great career as a project manager.
Before we begin this course, let me introduce myself.
My name is JuAnne, and I'll be your instructor
for this course.
As a senior program manager at Google for the past eight
years, I have worked on cross-functional projects
involving product managers, software engineers, user
experience designers, network operations, customer support,
and more to build software used at Google
and used by Google Cloud customers.
I began my career working as a liaison between customers
and engineers, documenting requirements
on software development projects.
As I became involved in larger projects,
I started to manage the timelines of the projects
and coordinate the work of the different teams that had to get
involved to finish the project.
Before I knew it, I was the de facto project manager.
I have accumulated my knowledge through formal and informal
training, finding practical application in finance,
insurance, and tech companies.
I'm super excited to be sharing with you more about the project
management discipline.
During this course, you'll learn all the steps
for kicking off a project.
We'll start with an overview of initiation,
which is the phase that allows ideas to come together and form
the beginnings of a plan for a project.
You'll identify the individual components of initiation,
like the project scope, goals, and deliverables.
You'll also learn how to measure the success of a project.
This is a super important piece of the puzzle.
After all, you want to be able to meet or exceed
all of the requirements for a successful project, right?
Later, we'll talk about how to identify stakeholders.
Stakeholders have a direct interest in the project's
completion and success.
We'll teach you about some really helpful tools
you can use to define project roles and responsibilities
and more tools and resources you typically
need to complete the work of a project.
Finally, we'll introduce documentation
that can help your team prepare for project kickoff.
Exciting, right?
The skills you'll learn in this course
will help you start projects of your own.
We can't wait to get into these topics with you.
[WHIMSICAL MUSIC]
Because initiation is the first phase of the project,
it's really important to get it right.
A well-planned initiation results
in a strong foundation for your project
and sets it up for success.
Initiation begins after a problem or opportunity
has been identified within an organization.
Often, stakeholders like senior leaders at a company
will initiate a project to address a specific need
for the business.
For example, perhaps the company would
like to roll out a new product, improve employee well-being,
or reduce costs in a certain department.
It's your responsibility as the project manager
to help identify the project goals, resources,
and other details based on initial discussions
with the project stakeholders.
Even though someone else might come up
with an idea for the project, it's
still your job to figure out all the important pieces that
need to come together in order to get the work done.
The initiation phase is a crucial time
for asking stakeholders to write questions,
performing research, determining resources, and clearly
documenting the key components of a project.
Doing this will help you solidify the scope
or the boundary of the project.
If this seems a bit overwhelming, don't worry.
We'll talk more about project scope later on in this course.
If a project isn't initiated properly,
things can go wrong pretty fast.
For example, without sufficient understanding
of the project's goals, you might
underestimate what resources you need
or how long the project might take.
Or, without agreeing with stakeholders
on what success looks like, you might
think the project was completed successfully
while the stakeholders might think it
didn't accomplish their goals.
Getting on the same page and gaining clarity
during the initiation phase can save a lot of time
and extra work for everyone throughout the project.
Proper initiation also helps ensure
that the benefits of the project outcomes
will outweigh the costs of the project.
To determine this, you'll do what's
called a cost-benefit analysis, which
is the process of adding up the expected
value of a project, the benefits,
and comparing them to the dollar cost.
To do this, you will work with stakeholders
to consider a few questions.
To determine the benefits of a project,
those questions might include--
what value will this project create?
How much money could this project save our organization?
How much money will it bring in from existing customers?
How much time will be saved?
How will the user experience be improved?
And to determine the costs of a project,
those questions might include--
how much time will people have to spend on this project?
What will be the one-time costs?
Are there any ongoing costs?
What about long-term costs?
The benefits of a project should always outweigh the costs.
So it's really important that you consider these questions
early on.
Coming up, we'll talk more about the initiation phase
and explore the key components of initiating a project.
[WHIMSICAL MUSIC]
There are several key components of initiation
that you need to consider in order for your project
to be successful--
goals, scope, deliverables, success criteria, stakeholders,
and resources.
First, you need to consider the goals of a project.
The goal is what you've been asked to do
and what you're trying to achieve.
All projects should have clear goals,
and often, those will be determined by senior company
leaders with your help.
From there, you would begin to consider the project scope.
This is the process to define the work that needs to happen
to complete the project.
You also need to consider project deliverables.
These are the tangible and intangible outcomes
of a project.
Once the goals, scope, and deliverables are determined,
you need to consider success criteria.
Success criteria are the standards
by which you measure how successful a project was
in reaching its goals.
Another important consideration is your stakeholders.
Stakeholders are key to making informed decisions
at every step of the project, including the initiation phase.
They are the people who both have an interest in and are
affected by the completion and success of a project.
As a result, they are often instrumental in determining
the goals, objectives, deliverables,
and success criteria of a project
from coming up with the idea, to outlining their expectations
of its results.
As you move through the initiation phase,
it's your job to ensure that you understand
the needs of the project's stakeholders early on.
It's also your role to ensure that all stakeholders are
in agreement on the goals and overall mission of the project
before moving on to the next phase.
Now, let's talk about resources.
Resources generally refer to the budget, people, materials,
and other items that you'll have at your disposal.
It's super important to think carefully about those pieces
early on.
No one wants to get started on a project only
to realize halfway through that they
don't have enough money or enough people to complete
the work.
That would be a mess.
Finally, once you've established your goals, scope,
deliverables, success criteria, stakeholders, and resources,
it's time to create a project charter.
A project charter is a document that contains
all the details of a project.
Project charters clearly define the project and its goals
and outline what is needed to accomplish them.
A project charter allows you to get organized, set up
a framework for what needs to be done,
and communicate those details to others.
Once you've drafted the charter, you
would then review the document with key stakeholders
to get their approval to move into the planning stage.
Coming up, you'll learn more about project charters
and even get the chance to create one yourself.
ROWENA: Congratulations on finishing this video
in the Google Project Management Certificate.
Access the full learning experience, including
job search help, and start to earn your official certificate
by clicking on the icon.
To view the next course in this video, click here.
And subscribe to our channel to learn more from Google Career
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