Overview

The Initiation phase is the foundation of successful project management. This critical first stage establishes the project's purpose, direction, and boundaries while securing stakeholder alignment and commitment.

A well-executed initiation phase significantly increases the likelihood of project success by ensuring clear understanding and agreement on fundamentals before resources are committed.

Project Start (first 2 weeks) - Iteration 0

This page will outline steps to complete all of the following project tasks.

  • Set up project financials and resource scheduling
  • Conduct stakeholder planning, kickoffs, dependency mapping, risk mapping, timeline planning
  • Establish working agreements, deliverable acceptance criteria

Resource Allocation planning

  1. If not yet done, review associated Kantata Project, SOW, and scoping issue attached to the Customer Epic -note the scoping issue helpss formulate baseline project understanding needed to formulate project plannning, resource scheduling, and risk
  2. For Consulting Block SKUs: Review the DoW (should be attached to Customer Epic)
  3. Work with Resource Scheduling team to align the appropriate resources
  4. Use Burndown templates to build the intial resource/plan schedule

Conduct Sales > Delivery Transition

  1. Invite Engagement Manager, Technical Architect, Professional Services Engineer, Account Managers, and Customer Success Managers (if assigned)
  2. Use Sales to Delivery Transition Issue (attached to Customer Epic) to guide your meeting, update in real time. Focus the meeting on:
    • Business drivers and context
    • Timelines
    • SOW validation and clarification
    • Technical requirements overview
    • Schedule planning for Stakeholder Planning and Kickoff
    • Review initial resource plan/schedule
    • Risks and dependencies
    • Review Working Agreements and determine needs for a SteerCo
    • Review the need for a RACI

Project Setup Step

Before diving into the formal project initiation activities, follow these practical setup steps to establish the project infrastructure:

  1. Review the Customer Epic and Child Stories
  • Thoroughly review all customer requirements
  • Identify key deliverables and expectations
  • Note any questions or clarifications needed
  • Understand dependencies and constraints
  1. Create the initial Collaboration Project
  • Use Claude to assist in setting up the GitLab project structure
  • Set up appropriate project visibility and access permissions
  1. Import Project Issues into the CP
  1. Update the initial Project Charter within the CP
  1. Create an Internal Project Slack Channel
  • Establish a dedicated communication channel for the project team
  • Invite all relevant team members
  • Pin important documents and links
  • Create a Slack Project Charter Canvas (Optional)
  1. Create a Project Canvas
  • Use Claude to help develop a comprehensive project canvas
  • Include project vision, objectives, key stakeholders, and constraints
  • Outline high-level timeline and milestones

Stakeholder Planning Meeting

Leverage this meeting to identify and address any expectation misalignment between GitLab and the Customer team before the broader kickoff meeting

Schedule a dedicated meeting with Customer PM & key stakeholders from both GitLab and Customer teams. Use the Stakeholder Planning Template to guide the discussion Focus on mutual understanding of project parameters

  • Confirm Project Stakeholders

    • Identify all key participants and their roles
    • Confirm availability and communication channels
    • Project Objectives

  • Validate business drivers and success criteria

    • Align on use cases and expected outcomes
    • Project Velocity and Timeline

  • Set expectations on pace and milestone dates

    • Discuss sprint/iteration cadence preferences
    • Project Prerequisites

  • Review technical and organizational readiness

    • Identify any blockers to starting work
    • Kickoff Preparation

  • Determine agenda and participants for the full kickoff

    • Set expectations for the kickoff meeting
    • Onboarding Validations

  • Ensure all access and permissions are in place

    • Verify environments and tooling availability

  • Next Steps

    • Document action items with owners and deadlines
    • Plan for Customer Kickoff and Discovery sessions

  • Key Outputs

    • Validated stakeholder list and roles
    • Aligned expectations on timeline and velocity
    • Documented prerequisites and dependencies
    • Prepared agenda for Customer Kickoff
    • Action items with clear ownership
    • Create Customer Slack channel and invite Customer & Internal Project team members. You can you use this AR as template
    • Create a Support Ticket to be reviewed at kickoff

Customer Kickoff

  1. Consolidate insights from EM>PS Transition and Stakeholder Planning
  2. Prepare the presentation using the Kickoff deck template
  3. For projects where we recommend a steering committee meeting, also prepare the SteerCO template
  4. Ensure all key (driving and leading) stakeholders are invited

Present a comprehensive overview of:

  • Project objectives and success criteria
  • Team structure and roles
  • Project approach and methodology
  • Timeline and milestone plan
  • Communication and reporting cadence
  • Next steps and immediate actions

Key Outputs:

  • Confirmed understanding of project objectives, approach, and dependancies that will drive progress
  • Scheduled Discovery & Planning sessions
  • Confirmed Iteration Cadences
  • Confirmed SteerCO needs
  • Confirmed RACI needs
  • Create Customer Slack Channel and invite Customer Project team members. You can you use this AR issue as a template within the access-reuests Project
  • Documented action items with clear ownership
  • CSAT shared
  • Support ticket created & shared with the Customer