The start of a new project is a critical moment for the following reasons:

• Knowledge transfer between the pre-sales team and the project team
• Definition and understanding of customer expectations
• Acquisition of customer methodologies or procedures
• Team building

For these reasons, a proper and extensive communication is important.

Here some checklist to help to drive this phase

Checklist for the BU Lead

• Define the team and communicate to members about the start of the project with the relative timeline.
• Define who is the team leader and communicate this to him/her.
• Assign an Architect to the project and provide him a link with the pre-sales architect for their alignment.
• Create a group on office365 and set the team leader as the owner of the group.
• Create the project channel on Teams.
• Check the project on elapseit, budget, costs, and team.
• Give admin access to the project on elapseit to the team leader.
• Load on project SharePoint all pre-sales materials.
• Notify Business Unit Architect(s) that a new project is starting and needs the attention of mentors
• Organize an internal kick-off with the team with the following goals:
  • Provide the proper context about the customer, the project, high-level strategy.
  • Involve the customer Account and Sales ( if needed ) to explain the customer strategy.
  • Define and explain team roles.
  • Involve the CTO or the PreSales Architect to explain the technological landscape.
  • Define what are the customer needs, expectations and priorities.
• Debrief with the team leader to be sure everything is clear and alignment is complete.
• Organize the kick-off with the customer with the following goals:
  • Introduce the team and create a link with the team leader.
  • Clarify to the customer the team set-up with relative roles and accountabilities.
  • Be sure that the next step will be defined.
• Support the team leader for the first two weeks to smooth communication and operations, providing context and strategy.

Checklist for Team Leader

• Check that BU Lead covered all the steps.
• Define and share the development process, trying to fit our best practices with the customer's ones.
• Ask for git repositories to GitLab Administrator.
• Ask for cloud infrastructure to Internal IT (if needed) .
• Be sure that architectural and technological landscapes are clear, otherwise ask for deep dive with the architect.
• Check the frameworks and languages guidelines to define the software development tech stack ( Sharepoint: Bigdata --> Engineering )
• Verify that all members understood goals, priorities and the solution.
• Define and share a first draft of the backlog to be sure that all members are aligned.
• Establish a good level of communication with all the team members ( including 1-1 meetings ).
• Establish a good level of communication with the customer.
• Periodically (since the beginning) verify that customer needs, expectations and priorities are still the same explained by the BU Lead or Account.
• Don't wait for the customer, be proactive.
• Start communicating with the Business Unit Architect(s) to align with the company practices

Checklist for Architect

• Deeply align with pre-sales Architect.
• Be sure to have a clear context about the technological landscape of the customer, what is allowed and sustainable and what is not.
• Check the frameworks and languages guidelines to define the software development tech stack ( Sharepoint: Bigdata --> Engineering )
• Draft a first HLD to better transfer knowledge to the team.
• Establish a good level of communication with the team and with the customer ( don't act behind the team leader ).
• Follow closely the team for the first weeks, to avoid pitfalls.
• Understand immediately if there are technical shortcomings to address.
• Start communicating with the Business Unit Architect(s) to align with the company practices

Checklist for Team Member

• Help team leader as much as you can, in particular in the start-up phase.
• Be sure that architectural and technological landscapes are clear, otherwise ask for deep dive with the architect.
• If strategy, goals or other is not clear, don't hesitate to ask, alignment on purpose is making the difference.
• Establish a good level of communication with the team and with the customer. We don't want a ghost team behind the team leader, let's show our synergy and organization.
• Be proactive.
• Start communicating with the Business Unit Architect(s) to align with the company practices