Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project

Introduction to Course 2
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 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 are interested
in changing your career. Whatever your reason for being here, we're 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 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 learn in this course will help you start projects of your own.
We can't wait to get into these topics with you. So let's get started. Meet me in the next video.
Course 2 overview
Hello! Welcome to the second of the six courses in the Google Project Management Certificate
program.

This course will teach you how to set the stage for a successful project. You will learn about
stakeholders, their level of influence, and how to mobilize and manage them, as well as tackle tasks
to identify project scope, goals, deliverables, and success criteria. You will learn how to use tools like
RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) charts, stakeholder analysis, and project
charters to help you set project expectations. You will also familiarize yourself with setting SMART
(Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals to help you see the full scope of
a project, determine its feasibility, and clearly define what project success will look like in concrete
terms. Current Google project managers will continue to instruct and provide you with hands-on
approaches for accomplishing these tasks, while implementing the right tools and resources for the
job.

In this reading, you will learn about the Project Management Certificate program structure and
course functionality. If you already read this in the last course and don't need a refresher, feel free to
skip it. If you’re new to the program, welcome! We’ve specifically designed the program you’re about
to explore to help every type of learner successfully finish the certificate and get ready for a role in
project management. No previous experience is required.

Become job-ready
In this Google Project Management Certificate program, you will learn the foundations of traditional
project management and gain insight into Agile project management. According to the Project
Management Institute, the project management labor force in seven project-oriented sectors is
expected to grow by 33 percent, or nearly 22 million new jobs, by 2027*. We are excited to join you
on this journey as you learn the skills to begin a career in one of today’s most in-demand
professions.
Course 2 covers four weeks of material. Each week includes a series of lessons with many types of
learning opportunities, such as:

 Videos with a Google employee as your instructor. 

 Readings to introduce new ideas and case studies and to build on the concepts from
the videos. 

 Discussion forums to explore course topics for better understanding and chat with
peers in the program. 

 In-video questions that will pop up from time to time. They’re designed for you to
check your learning as you go! 

 Practice quizzes to check your understanding and give you valuable feedback.
Practice activities will provide you with a hands-on opportunity to apply skills you are
working to master. You will assess your work by answering quiz questions about it or by
comparing it to an exemplar built by our course team. Note: these activities will not
count towards your final course grade, but you are strongly encouraged to complete them
as they will help prepare you for the graded quizzes and peer reviews.

 Graded quizzes on video and reading content to measure your progress. 

 Ungraded peer-review activities on video and reading content  that provide you the
opportunity to practice applying skills you are working to master. Other learners in your
course will see the work you submit and give you feedback based on a rubric. 

 Graded peer-review activities on video and reading content that assess your ability to
apply skills you are working to master. Other learners in your course will grade your
work and give you feedback based on a rubric.

Everyone learns differently, so we designed this program to let you work at your own pace. Although
your personalized deadlines start when you enroll, they’re just a guide. Feel free to move through
the program however it works best for you. Keep in mind, you can always reset your deadlines by
clicking the blue reset my deadlines button. There’s no penalty for late assignments. To earn your
certificate, all you have to do is complete all of the work.

Tips
 We strongly recommend you take all six courses—and complete the items in each
lesson—in the order they appear, as new information and concepts build on previous
ones. 

 Make the most of the readings and additional resources throughout the program.
They’re designed to support your learning. 

 If something is confusing, don’t hesitate to rewatch a video, go through a reading again,

or ask your classmates for advice in the discussion forum. 
  Take part in all learning opportunities to gain as much knowledge and experience
possible. 

Congratulations on choosing to take this first step toward becoming a part of the wonderful world of
project management. Enjoy the journey!

*Source: PMI (2017). Project Management Job Growth and Talent Gap 2017–2027.

Helpful resources to get started

The Google Project Management Certificate will provide you with new lessons every week. As
you’ve learned, each lesson includes a series of videos, readings, activities, in-video questions,
practice quizzes, and graded quizzes. In this reading, you’ll learn about providing feedback on
course content, obtaining the Google Project Management Certificate, and acquiring helpful habits
for successfully completing this certificate program. 

Providing feedback on course content

Please remember to give feedback on videos, readings, and materials. Just open the resource and
look for the thumbs-up and thumbs-down symbols. 

 Click thumbs-up for materials that are helpful. 

 Click thumbs-down for materials that are not helpful.

If you want to flag a specific issue with the item, click the flag icon, select a category, and then
optionally type an explanation in the text box.

This feedback goes to the course developers, not other learners, and helps create even better
programs in the future. 

For technical help, visit the Learner Help Center. 

Obtaining the Google Project Management Certificate

You can review videos, readings, discussion forums, in-video questions, and practice quizzes in the
program for free. However, to access graded assignments and be eligible to receive your official
Google Project Management Certificate, you must:
  Pay the Course Certificate fee, or apply and be approved for a scholarship.

AND

 Pass all graded assignments in all six courses or meet the course-passing threshold.
Each graded assignment is part of a cumulative graded score for the course, and the
passing grade for each course is 80%. 

Helpful habits to successfully complete the certificate

As a learner, you’re bringing all of your past experiences and best learning practices to this program.
The designers of this course have also put together a list of helpful habits that they believe will help
you to be successful: 

1. Plan your time: Setting regular study times and sticking with them each week can help
you make learning a part of your routine. Use a calendar or timetable to create a
schedule, and list what you plan to do each day in order to break your work down into
achievable goals. Create a quiet place to watch the videos, review the readings, and
complete the activities so you can really focus on the material.

2. Be curious: If you find an idea that gets you excited, act on it! Ask questions, search for
more details online, check out the links that interest you, and take notes on your
discoveries. The little things you do to support your learning along the way will take
your knowledge even further, open more doors in this high-growth field, and help you
qualify for jobs. 

3. Take notes: Notes are useful-to-remember information that you think might be
important in the future, especially as you’re preparing to enter a new job field. In
addition, taking notes is an effective way to make connections between topics and gain
a better understanding of those topics.

4. Chat (responsibly) with other learners: If you have a question, chances are, you’re not
alone. Reach out in the discussion forum to ask for help from other learners taking this
program. You can also visit Coursera’s Global Online Community. Other important
things to know while you’re making friends can be found in the Coursera Honor Code
and Code of Conduct.

5. Update your profile: Consider updating your profile on Coursera. This link appears in
the menu when you click on your name at the top-right corner of this screen. When
classmates find you in the discussion forums, they can click on your name to view your
profile and get to know you more.
Finding more information
Throughout this course, you will learn the basics of project management. We will provide a lot of
information through videos and readings. But sometimes, you may need to look things up on your
own for additional learning. Things change fast in this growing field, so it is critical to do your own
research so you can stay up-to-date on what is new. 

Here are some helpful project management resources available online:

 The Project Management Institute is the leading association for those in project,
program, or portfolio management professions. Their website provides guides, industry
standards, articles, templates, job boards, certifications, and more to help support
professionals in these careers.

 The Scrum Guide defines Scrum, a technique used in Agile project management. You’ll
learn about this framework later in the program. This guide describes Scrum’s roles,
events, artifacts, and the rules that bind them together. You can also find hundreds of
free resources to learn more about Scrum at Scrum.org Resources.

Digital documents, spreadsheets, and presentations 

You will complete activities using a variety of digital documents, spreadsheets, and presentation
templates. These templates align with the document types that project managers often use to create,
edit, and collaborate with their team and organization. Digital documents make it easy to collaborate
in real time and stay organized.

If you’re not familiar with these types of tools, check out the course Resources. 

Glossary
This course will cover a lot of terms and concepts, some of which you may already know and some
of which will be new. To remind yourself about what a term means, refer to this Glossary.

Accessibility guidelines
When you create written or visual content or plan a meeting or event, follow these Accessibility Tips
to make it more accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
Why is project initiation essential?
Welcome back! In the last course, you learned that initiation is the first phase within the project life
cycle, followed by planning, executing, and closing. Makes sense, right? Regardless of your chosen
methodology, all projects have to start somewhere. Let's talk more about initiation and why it's
important for the success of a project. 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 the right 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 the 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
costs. 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 the
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.

Bye for now!

Key components of project initiation
Hello and welcome back. You just learned about the initiation phase of the project life cycle and why it's
so important to get it right. Next, I'll teach you about the key components that make up initiation and
how these pieces lead to the planning phase of a project. 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 a project's 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're the people who
both have an interest in and are affected by the completion and success of a project. As a result, they're
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 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. Hopefully, you're starting to see how the key components of initiation help lay the
foundation of a solid project. During the rest of this course, we'll talk more about each of the
components outlined so far. You've come so far and learned so much. Keep up the great work.

Afsheen: Listening to learn

[MUSIC] Hi, my name is Afsheen. I'm the Director of Core Capacity at Google, where we support some of
our key products such as Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Search, and many more. Ultimately, what
we're doing is we're managing the supply and demand for our products in the resource space, so
specifically: compute, storage, machine learning, and networking resources. Ultimately, our goal is to
provide the fuel for these products so we can support our billions of users. I often look at establishing
the project goals, and tied to the goals is discussing the criteria. What's a successful project? What are
the measurables involved in the project space? And lastly, I always want to look at the stakeholders that
are involved—maybe our clients, our key stakeholders, and so on—and make sure that they're thought
of during the formation of the project. I'm meeting with the stakeholders, I'm trying to understand what
they're trying to achieve, what we're trying to achieve, and the goal, if you will, is a critical aspect of
setting the scope. When I'm trying to set the goals of a project, I apply very in depth, active listening. I'm
doing a lot of socializing with other stakeholders. I'm meeting a lot of players to understand what's the
landscape like. It's an active listening experience. I have a recent example of a project that in my view
did not do the proper initiation phase. Last week, in fact, a group approached me with a process or a
feature that they were going to launch. I reviewed it and immediately realized that they were so far off.
They had not discussed the topic with any of my team members or myself, and they were day minus one
from launching the feature. It was a total miss. It really illustrates the point about when you initiate a
project, you can't invest enough time in meeting with stakeholders, meeting with your colleagues,
listening to them—actively listening. Someone taught me recently the value of building that "listening to
learn" muscle. And in the project initiation phase, to me, that is such a valuable talent, there are those
that have it, there are those that have learned it, and there those who will never do it. And I believe it's
a trainable skill, but it requires you to really slow down and look at the landscape in front of you.

Performing a cost-benefit analysis

Previously, you learned that a cost-benefit analysis is the process of adding up the expected value
of a project—the benefits—and comparing them to the dollar costs. In this reading, we will discuss
the benefits of conducting a cost-benefit analysis, guiding questions to help you and your
stakeholders conduct one, and how to calculate return on investment (ROI).

The benefits of a cost-benefit analysis

A cost-benefit analysis can minimize risks and maximize gains for projects and organizations. It can
help you communicate clearly with stakeholders and executives and keep your project on track.
Because this type of analysis uses objective data, it can help reduce biases and keep stakeholder
self-interest from influencing decisions. 

Comparing a project’s benefits to its costs can help you make a strong business case to
stakeholders and leadership and ensure your organization pursues the most profitable or useful
projects. Organizations use cost-benefit analyses to reduce waste and invest their resources
responsibly.
Guiding questions for a cost-benefit analysis
When you’re pursuing a project, the benefits should outweigh the costs. It’s important for you and
your stakeholders to consider questions like the ones that follow early on, while you prepare the
proposal.

To determine the benefits of a project, you might ask:

 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 it save? 

 How will it improve the customer experience?

And to determine the costs of a project, consider questions such as:

 How much time will people have to spend on this project?

 What are the one-time costs?

 Are there any ongoing costs?

 What about long term-costs? 

You might also consider questions about intangible benefits. These are gains that are not
quantifiable, such as:

 Customer satisfaction. Will the project increase customer retention, causing them to
spend more on the company’s products or services? 

 Employee satisfaction. Is the project likely to improve employee morale, reducing

turnover? 

 Employee productivity. Will the project reduce employee’s overtime hours, saving the
company money?

 Brand perception. Is the project likely to improve the company’s brand perception and
recognition, attracting more customers or providing a competitive advantage?

You can also flip these questions to consider intangible costs. These are costs that are not
quantifiable. For example, might the project put customer retention, employee satisfaction, or brand
perception at risk?

When assigning values to tangible or intangible costs and benefits, you can reference similar past
projects, conduct industry research, or consult with experts.
Calculating costs and benefits
The process of calculating costs and benefits is also called calculating return on investment, or
ROI. There are many ways to determine a project’s ROI, but the easiest way is to compare the
upfront and ongoing costs to its benefits over time.

One common ROI formula is:

In this formula, G represents the financial gains you expect from the project, and C represents the
upfront and ongoing costs of your investment in the project.

For example, imagine your project costs $6,000 up front plus $25 per month for 12 months. This
equals $300 per year, but you estimate that the project will bring in $10,000 in revenue over the
course of that year. Using the formula above, you calculate the ROI as: ($10,000 - $6,300) ÷ $6,300
= 0.58 = 58%

The ROI comes to 0.58, or 58%. You consider this to be a strong ROI, so you decide to pursue the
project.

Key takeaway
Performing a cost-benefit analysis can help you and your stakeholders determine if it makes sense
to take on a new project by evaluating if its benefits outweigh its costs. When conducting cost-benefit
analyses for your prospective projects, you can use the guiding questions and ROI formula provided
in this reading as a reference. 

To learn more about performing a cost-benefit analysis, check out these articles:

 Cost Benefit Analysis for Projects – A Step-by-Step Guide

 Cost Benefit or Benefit Cost Analysis

Wrap-up
Nice work! You're on your way to becoming a great candidate for roles in project management. We're so
glad you've stuck with us, and we hope you're proud of the progress you've made so far.

In the last few videos, we've given you a primer on kicking off a project successfully. To recap, you
learned more about initiation,the first phase of the project life cycle. Hopefully, you're starting to see
how important this phase is for the overall health of a project. As we talked about earlier, a lack of
preparation during the initiation stage can lead to problems later on in the project life cycle, like a
budget shortage, a missed deadline, or too few teammates to complete the work. But with early
planning, you can set your team up for success. We also introduced you to the major factors you should
consider during the initiation phase, including goals, scope, deliverables, success criteria, stakeholders
and resources. All of these come together in the early plans for a project and are documented in a
project charter. Now that you understand the basic elements of initiation, let's dive deeper. Next up,
we'll talk about identifying goals and deliverables and learn more about measurement and success
criteria. You're doing great, and we'll see you soon.
Semana 2

Introduction: Defining project goals, scope, and success

criteria
Welcome back. By now you should have a better sense of how the different parts of the initiation come
together to form the beginnings of a project. So far, you've outlined the key components of project
initiation and, most importantly, you've learned that a lack of preparation during this stage can lead to
problems later on. We're going to continue honing your project preparation skills. Once we're done
here, you'll be able to define and create project goals and deliverables, the guiding stars of your project.
You'll also be able to define project scope, the boundaries of your project, that state what is and is not
part of your project. You'll be able to identify what's in-scope and out-of-scope for a project and you'll
be able to recognize scope creep, something you'll need to keep a close eye on to help you reach your
project goal. Finally, you'll be able to explain different ways of defining and measuring your project's
success criteria. Before we get started, I'd like to talk through an example that we'll follow for the rest of
this course. Imagine that you're the lead project manager at Office Green, a commercial landscaping
company that specializes in plant decor for offices and other businesses. The Director of Product at
Office Green has an idea for a new service called Plant Pals to offer high-volume customers small, low-
maintenance plants, like little cacti and leafy ferns, for their desks. As the project manager, you've been
tasked with managing the roll out of this new service. As we go through this course, we'll return to your
role as the project manager at Office Green, to help teach you about project goals, deliverables, and
success criteria. You'll also see the role your team and stakeholders play in creating and following these
three important components. At the end, you'll compile everything you've learned into a shared
document that you can use as a portfolio to share with future employers. After this course, you'll move
on to the next phases of the project life cycle, and so will your Office Green project. Enjoy.

Determining project goals and deliverables

Welcome back! In this video, I'll define project goals and deliverables and explain why they're important.
Then I'll teach you how to determine whether a goal or deliverable has been well-defined, which means
it's got enough detail and information to guide you towards success. First things first, to set up a project
for success and to make your job easier, you want to figure out what needs to be done before you
actually get started. You need to define exactly what your goals and deliverables are so that you'll be
able to tell your team members what to do. You need a clear picture of what you're trying to
accomplish, how you're going to accomplish it, and how you know when that has been accomplished.
Let's define "project goal" so that you can start to figure out what your project team needs to do to
reach it. A project goal is the desired outcome of the project. It's what you've been asked to do and
what you're trying to achieve. For example, your goal could be to improve the response time to
customer inquiries via email by 20%. The goal of your Office Green project might be to increase revenue
by 5% through a new service called Plant Pals that offers desk plants to top customers by the end of the
year. Goals are important because they give you a road map to your destination. Without a clear goal in
mind, how can you know where to go or how to get there? Now, one of the biggest differences between
what makes a good goal and a not-so-good goal is how well it's defined—meaning, how clear and
specific is the goal? If the goal is your destination, are you confident you'll know when you've arrived?
The examples I mentioned before to improve the response time to customer inquiries via email by 20%
and to increase the Office Green revenue by 5% are two well-defined goals because they tell you what
you're trying to achieve. But wait, there's more. These goals also tell you how to do what you've been
asked to do. In this case, it's via email through a new service offering. And that's not all. These goals
clarify the goal even further by saying to improve by 20% and increase by 5%.

Now we know where we're going. Well-defined goals are both specific and measurable. They give you a
clear sense of what you're trying to accomplish. Really great goals have even more detail, but I'll get to
that soon. When you start a project, take time to review your goals and make sure they're well-defined.
To do this, you might need to get more information from your stakeholders. Talk to them about their
vision for the project. Ask how this aligns to the company's larger goals and mission. By the end of that
conversation, you and your stakeholders should agree to support the project goals in order to avoid
running into issues later on. Here's an example from my own experience as a project manager. Our team
had finished a new product feature. Our stated goal was to deliver an early version of this feature and
collect user feedback. When we delivered the feature to one of our key customers for user feedback,
the customer didn't have anyone available to try it out. Our team debated whether or not we had met
our goal if we hadn't collected user feedback. Some felt that we hadn't achieved the stated goal, while
others thought we did. The customer was satisfied with our team's ability to deliver the feature in the
timeline stated, but our internal team wasted valuable time going back and forth about it. That said,
make sure that before you start your project, you, your stakeholders, and your team are all clear on the
project's goals so that you know you are making the right kind of progress. I'll teach you a process for
how to do this coming up. Once you have the goals nailed down, it's time to examine the project
deliverables. Project deliverables refer to the tangible outcomes of the project. In other words, a
deliverable is what gets produced or presented at the end of a task, event, or process. Take the goal to
improve customer response time. A deliverable for that goal could be the creation of email templates
for responding to typical questions. Your Office Green project goal to increase revenues could have two
deliverables: launching the plant service and a finished website that highlights the new kinds of plants
being offered. These are considered deliverables because they describe tangible outputs that show
stakeholders how additional revenues will be generated. There are all sorts of project deliverable
examples. A pretty common one is a report. When a goal is reached, you can visibly see the results
documented in a chart, graph, or presentation. Deliverables help us quantify and realize the impacts of
the project. Just like needing well-defined goals, you need well-defined deliverables for pretty much the
same reasons. Deliverables are usually decided up front with the stakeholders or clients involved in the
project. They hold everyone accountable and are typically a big part of achieving the goal. Make sure to
ask questions about what the deliverable should be and have everyone share the vision and
expectations of the deliverables so you're all on the same page. Coming up, you'll practice the art of
defining your goals even further by following the SMART method. Enjoy.
How to set SMART goals
Welcome back. By now, you know that goals are important to the success of your project, and you know
that they need to be well-defined in order to help keep your project on track. Since your deliverables
depend on your goals, it's in your best interest to get those goals as well-defined as possible. Lucky for
you, I've got an easy method for doing just that: setting SMART goals. I already mentioned that goals
should be specific and measurable. The SMART method to evaluate goals adds three more
considerations for success: be attainable, be relevant, and be time-bound. Put them all together, and
what do you have? SMART goals. As an entry-level project manager, you may or may not be setting the
project's main goals, but you will need to be able to identify and clarify them as needed, and that's
where the SMART method can be a valuable tool. Let's take a closer look at each term. As I've already
mentioned, if your goal is not specific, you'll have trouble figuring out how long it should take to
complete and whether or not you've accomplished it. For example, if the goal was simply to improve
customer service response time, that's not very specific. It does tell you what you want to achieve in
general, but it doesn't say anything else. If you've improved response time by 1 percent, is that enough?
If after five years, response time finally goes up, is that enough? How about if only half of your staff
improves their response times, but the other half stays the same? Specific goals should answer at least
two of the questions I'm about to ask. What do I want to accomplish? Why is this a goal? Does it have a
specific reason, purpose, or benefit? Who is involved, and who is the recipient: employees, customers,
the community at large? Where should the goal be delivered? And finally, to what degree? In other
words, what are the requirements and constraints? Next, we want to set goals that are measurable,
meaning we can determine that they were objectively met. Measuring is not only a way for people to
track progress, but also a tool to help people stay motivated. You can tell if a goal is measurable by
asking how much, how many, and how will I know when it's accomplished? Sometimes, the success of a
goal can be measured with a simple yes or no. Did you learn how to play guitar, yes or no? You will need
to measure most of the goals you have with metrics. Metrics are what you use to measure something
like figures or numbers. For example, if your goal was to run a 5K (five-kilometer race), then "distance in
kilometers" is your metric. At Office Green, the project goal is to increase revenue by 5 percent. In this
case, "revenue" is the metric. Lastly, consider benchmarks or points of reference to make sure you're
choosing accurate metrics. For instance, if your overall goal is to increase revenue, you can look at last
year's data as a benchmark for deciding how much to increase revenue this year. If last year's revenue
increased by 3 percent, then an increase by 5 percent in a booming economy would be a reasonable
goal for this year. The goal is specific and measurable, but is it attainable? Can it be reasonably reached
based on the metrics? Typically, you want goals that are a little challenging to encourage growth.
Otherwise, what's the point of the goal if nothing's going to change? However, you don't want it to be
too extreme or you'll never reach it. You'll have failed before you even started. Aim to find a balance
between the two extremes. For example, let's take the goal to run a 5K. Say you regularly run 2.5
kilometers three times a week. An attainable goal would be to go from running 2.5 kilometers to running
five kilometers within four weeks. An unattainable goal might be earning first-place in a 5K. I mean, it
could happen, but it's not likely, especially if you've never run that race before. But how can you know if
a goal is attainable, if it's unfamiliar? A clue to helping you figure out if your goal is attainable is to ask,
how can it be accomplished? Breakdown the goal into smaller parts, and see if it makes sense. Going
from 2.5 kilometers to five kilometers over four weeks means increasing your distance by a little over
half a kilometer each week. That's not so bad. Use the same process on your Office Green project goal.
Businesses usually conduct quarterly reviews, so let's assume the increase is expected to occur over the
course of a year for four quarters. In order to meet the goal, you need to see an increase of at least one
percent each quarter. Seems pretty reasonable to me. What wouldn't be reasonable is setting a goal of
increasing revenues by 50 percent or a hundred percent, unless your research shows that business was
improving that quickly. Your goal is specific and measurable and attainable. Now let's see if it's relevant.
In other words, does it make sense to try and reach this goal? Think about how the goal lines up with
other goals, priorities, and values. Ask whether the goal seems worthwhile. Does the effort involved
balance out the benefits? Does it match your organization's other needs and priorities? Everyone from
the client and the project team and the people who will ultimately use the product need to feel like the
goal is worth supporting. Also consider the timing. Both the amount of time the project will take, as well
as the larger economic and social context, can have big impacts. There might be a budget to complete
the project now, but will the company be able to sustain the project over time? Is there an audience
that will continue to use the product or service once it's delivered? Once you've got the answers to
these questions, you should have a clear goal to help steer the project. If you still don't feel confident
about the project's goals, keep digging. It's okay to ask questions if you have doubts. Communicate your
concerns with the project senior stakeholders and your direct supervisor, if you have one. They should
be able to address some of your concerns so that you can feel confident about moving forward. All right.
If you're feeling good about the project being relevant and attainable, and you've made sure it's
measurable and has the specifics to keep you and your project team focused, the final item on the
checklist is to make sure it's time-bound. Time-bound means your goal has a deadline. Deadlines give
you a way to track your progress. Otherwise, you may never reach your goal or never even get started.
Time and metrics often go hand in hand, because time can also be used as a metric. Making your goal
time-bound gives you a way to break down how much needs to be accomplished over time. For
example, if you need to increase revenues by the end of the year, you can break down how much you
need to increase each quarter, month, and week. There you have it. Specific, measurable, attainable,
relevant, and time-bound. A nearly foolproof method to create and evaluate your project goals. And you
know what they say: "Work smarter, not harder." As we continue in this module, you'll learn about
project scope and see how having clear goals supports all other decisions that come up during a project.

SMART goals: Making goals meaningful

In this lesson you are learning to define and create measurable project goals and deliverables. Now,
let's focus on SMART goals.
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals are very helpful for
ensuring project success. As you start your career in project management, you may not directly set
the project goals, but you should be able to clarify and understand them. SMART goals help you see
the full scope of a goal, determine its feasibility, and clearly define project success in concrete
terms. 

Let’s recap what we discussed in the previous video by taking a look at a breakdown of the criteria
for SMART goals below: 

 Specific: The objective has no ambiguity for the project team to misinterpret. 

 Measurable: Metrics help the project team determine when the objective is met.

 Attainable: The project team agrees the objective is realistic.

 Relevant: The goal fits the organization’s strategic plan and supports the project
charter.

 Time-bound: The project team documents a date to achieve the goal.

You may see variations on what each letter in the “SMART” acronym stands for. (For example, you
may see “actionable” or “achievable” instead of “attainable” or “realistic” instead of “relevant.”)
However, the general intent of each of these terms—to make sure the goal is within reach—is
always similar.
Focusing on the "M" in SMART
Let’s take a moment to zoom in on the M in SMART, which stands for measurable. Having
measurable goals allows you to assess the success of your project based on quantifiable or tangible
metrics, such as dollar amounts, number of outputs, quantities, etc. Measurable goals are important
because they leave little room for confusion around expectations from stakeholders. 

Not every metric will have value, so you will have to determine which metrics make sense for the
project. For example, measuring how many meetings the software engineers on your project attend
on a weekly basis may not be the most valuable metric for a productivity goal. Alternatively, you
might measure other aspects of the engineers’ productivity, such as a particular number of features
created per engineer or a specific number of issues flagged per day.

Defining a SMART goal

Let’s explore an example related to making a personal goal measurable. Imagine you are looking to
make a career change, and you set a goal to complete a Google Career Certificate. You can
measure the success of this goal because after completing the entire program, you will receive a
certificate—a tangible outcome.

Now, let’s determine how to make the remaining elements of this goal SMART. In this example, your
specific goal is to attain a Google Career Certificate. You can make this goal attainable by deciding
that you will complete one course per month. This goal is relevant because it supports your desire
to make a career change. Finally, you can make this goal time-bound by deciding that you will
complete the program within six months.

After defining each of these components, your SMART goal then becomes: Obtain a Google Career
Certificate by taking one course per month within the next six months.

Key takeaway
Determining metrics can be extremely helpful in capturing statuses, successes, delays, and more in
a project. As a project manager, identifying meaningful metrics can help move the project toward its
goal. Additionally, by defining each element of a project goal to make it SMART, you can determine
what success means for that goal and how to achieve it. 

Optional: What to know about peer-graded

assignments
Throughout this course, you will complete a few different types of hands-on activities that let you
apply your project management skills in “real-world” situations. These assignments ask you to think
through common project management problems, find solutions, and create the various artifacts
project managers use every day.

For some of these assignments, you’ll need to submit your work for other learners to grade. This
peer review process is a central part of the learning experience. It allows you to assess activities
objectively against a set rubric, and compare your approach with those of your peers. It also gives
you the option to give and receive qualitative feedback.

You’ll need to complete peer-graded assignments in each course, so here’s what you need to know:

How peer-grading works

Before submitting the activity, you can check your work against a list of required items it should
contain. Review this list carefully and revise your work before submitting, if necessary. This list
matches the rubric your peers will use to grade your assignment (and that you will use to grade
theirs). 

You should receive grades from at least two peers for each peer-graded assignment you complete.
As a grader, you can review as many submissions as you like, but you must mark at least two
assignments to move on in the course. 

Optional feedback
When grading a peer’s assignment, you will have the option to give qualitative feedback. We
encourage you to leave thoughtful comments about what they did well and where they can improve.
This feedback can help you and your peers understand why you lost points for certain rubric items,
so you can do better next time. Each assignment includes tips and examples of good feedback to
help you write constructive comments.

Submitting your work

Most assignments involve submitting documents or spreadsheets for review. You have the option to
submit your peer-graded assignments as either a URL (to a shared Google doc for example) or as a
downloadable file (like a .docx file). To grade your work, your peer reviewers will access the shared
doc or download the file you submitted.

Coursera automatically assigns you a personalized deadline for each assignment in the course.
Make note of this date and aim to submit your work on time—the earlier, the better. You are more
likely to get timely feedback if you turn in your assignment a day or two before the deadline.

What to do if you don’t receive a grade

If you submitted your assignment as a URL, and no one has reviewed it after a few days, check your
Google sharing settings to ensure “view” access is enabled. (Visit this resource to learn more about
file sharing.) 

If your share settings are correct and you still haven’t received a grade (or if you need assignments
to grade yourself), you have two options:

1. Check when you submitted your assignment. It can take up to a week for grades to
appear, so you may need to wait a little longer. New graders and assignments should be
available within a few days.

2. Ask for reviewers (or items to review) in the discussion forums. Posts like this are
common, so you can post your submission link for peers to review, or skim through
forum posts to find items to grade.

Need more help?

If you have questions on peer-graded assignments as you move through the courses, take a look at
these Coursera Learner support articles: 

 Submit peer reviewed assignments

 Submit feedback and grades for peer reviewed assignments

Share Google files for peer-graded activities

If you submit a peer-graded assignment as a URL, you need to make sure your peer reviewers
can access the file. To share a Google doc, sheet, or slide deck with your peers, you will need
to change your sharing settings to give them “view” access. Follow the steps below to adjust
your settings. 

1. Click the blue Share button at the top-right corner of your doc, sheet, or slide deck.

2. Clicking Share will bring up your settings. The default status in the Get link box should be
set to “Restricted (Only people added can open with this link).”
3. Select the Get link box to expand it. Then click on the dropdown arrow next to “Restricted.”
4. Select “Anyone with the link” to give peer reviewers access to the file. The link should turn
green when access is set to “anyone on the internet with this link can view the file.”

5. Click the dropdown arrow next to “Viewer” to make sure the “Viewer” option is selected. (If
the “Commenter” or “Editor” options are selected, your peers will be able to comment on or
make changes to your activity.)
6. Finally, click Copy link and paste it to the URL box in the My Submission tab of the activity.

Note: This process will not affect the “view” settings for any of your other files. You will need to
adjust the settings for each assignment you upload.
Homework:
Activity Overview

In this activity, you will analyze a scenario to identify project goals. Then, you will write the goals
using SMART criteria. 

As a reminder, SMART goals must be:

 Specific
 Measurable
 Attainable
 Relevant
 Time-bound

After you submit your work, review and respond to at least two of your classmates’ assignments.

Scenario
menos 

Review the scenario below. Then complete the step-by-step instructions.

Office Green, LLC, is a commercial landscaping company that specializes in plant decor for offices
and other businesses. The company is getting ready to introduce its new Plant Pals service, which
will provide high-volume customers with small, low-maintenance plants for their desks. You are the
project manager assigned to manage the Plant Pals launch.

Office Green’s main goal for this project is:

“Increase revenue by 5% by the end of the year by rolling out a new service that provides office
plants to high-volume clients.”

You recently met with the project sponsor (the Director of Product) to discuss two additional goals for
Plant Pals: increasing brand awareness and raising Office Green’s customer retention rate. In order
to help your team achieve these goals, you need to turn them into SMART goals. 
The notes from your meeting with the Director of Product are below. You can use this information to
create SMART goals:

 Office Green’s customer retention rate was 80% last year, but the CEO wants that
number to increase by at least 10% this year.
 Last year, 70% of customers who left Office Green for competitors said they did so
because they wanted more extensive services. When surveyed, 85% of existing
customers expressed an interest in Plant Pals.
 The Vice President of Customer Success expects Office Green to achieve a customer
satisfaction rating of over 90% this year—a slight increase over last year. The rating has
stayed between 85%-90% for the last five years.
 The company plans to create an Operations and Training plan for Plant Pals to improve
on existing customer service standards and boost efficiency.
 Office Green will promote the new service with a new marketing and sales strategy, a
redesigned website with a new Plant Pals landing page, and a print catalog. 
 With the publicity around the launch, Office Green projects that their customer base will
grow by at least 15%.
 Website traffic has dipped slightly over the past three years. The Marketing Manager
wants unique page visits to increase by at least 15K each month. 
 The project is scheduled to launch by the end of the third quarter. The project team will
continue to collect data on the project’s progress through the rest of the year and
assess how well it has met its goals at the end of the fourth quarter.

Step-By-Step Assignment Instructions

menos 

Step 1: Access the template

To use the template for this course item, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Link to template: SMART goals

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the template directly from the attachment
below.

Activity Template_ SMART goals.docx

Step 2: Revise the goals to be SMART

The template contains the two project goals for Plant Pals, but neither meets all of the SMART
criteria. Use the information from the scenario above to turn these goals into SMART goals. Write
them next to SMART Goal One and SMART Goal Two. Your goals should be complete, but brief—
one or two sentences is enough.

For example, here is an example of a goal that’s missing some of the SMART criteria:

“To help customers care for their plants, Office Green will create an app sometime this year.”

That’s not a bad start, but it isn’t specific, measurable, or time-bound. Here’s the same goal,
rewritten as a SMART goal:

“To help customers care for their plants, Office Green will create an app that offers care tips and
reminders for specific plants. The app will be completed within 18 months and be compatible with
100% of the types of plants Office Green sells.”

Step 3: Explain what makes each goal SMART

Now that you’ve rewritten the goals, explain what makes them SMART by answering the following
questions:

1. What makes the goal specific? Does it provide enough detail to avoid ambiguity?
2. What makes the goal measurable? Does it include metrics to gauge success?
3. What makes the goal attainable? Is it realistic given available time and resources?
4. What makes the goal relevant? Does it support project or business objectives?
5. What makes the goal time-bound? Does it include a timeline or deadline?

Be specific in your answers. For instance, the example plant care app SMART goal is:

 Specific: The team knows what they’re building: an app that helps users care for their
plants and reminds them to do so. 
 Measurable: The app will be complete when it includes 100% of the plant types Office
Green sells.
 Attainable: The company has the knowledge, time, resources to build the app. 
 Relevant: Office Green’s business model relies on customers caring for their plants
successfully. 
 Time-bound: The goal includes an 18-month timeframe.
If you find that either goal does not meet all of the SMART criteria, try revising it and answering the
questions again.

Review criteria
menos 

There are a total of 12 points for this activity. At least two of your peers will evaluate your SMART
goals. Your final grade will be the median of these scores. You must get 10 out of 12 total points to
pass.

Giving Good Feedback

menos 

Once you complete the activity, review and provide constructive feedback for at least two
classmates. Below are some guidelines to help you leave constructive comments for your peers. 

When giving feedback, consider:

 Leading with positive feedback

 Providing a balance of positive and actionable feedback
 Sticking to information-specific, issue-focused, and observation-centered comments

Ready to submit your work? Head to the My Submission

tab at the top of the page.
Creating OKRs for your project

In this lesson, you are learning to define and create measurable project goals and
deliverables. This reading will focus on creating effective objectives and key results
(OKRs) and how to implement them into your project.

What are OKRs?

OKR stands for objectives and key results. They combine a goal and a metric to determine a
measurable outcome.

Objectives Key Results

Defines what needs to be The measurable outcomes that objectively define when the
achieved objective has been met

Describes a desired
outcome

Company-wide OKRs are used to set an ultimate goal for an entire organization, while team,
department, and project-level OKRs describe the focused results each group will need to achieve in
order to support the organization.

OKRs and project management

As a project manager, OKRs can help you expand upon project goals and further clarify the
deliverables you’ll need from the project to accomplish those goals. Project-level OKRs help
establish the appropriate scope for your team so that you can say “no” to requests that may get in
the way of them meeting their objectives. You can also create and use project-level OKRs to help
motivate your team since OKRs are intended to challenge you to push past what’s easily
achievable. 
Creating OKRs for your project

Set your objectives

Project objectives should be aspirational, aligned with organizational goals, action-oriented,

concrete, and significant. Consider the vision you and your stakeholders have for your project and
determine what you want the project team to accomplish in 3–6 months.

Examples:

 Build the most secure data security software 

 Continuously improve web analytics and conversions

 Provide a top-performing service

 Make a universally-available app

 Increase market reach

 Achieve top sales among competitors in the region

Strong objectives meet the following criteria. They are:

 Aspirational

 Aligned with organizational goals

 Action-oriented

 Concrete

 Significant

To help shape each objective, ask yourself and your team:

 Does the objective help in achieving the project’s overall goals?

 Does the objective align with company and departmental OKRs?

 Is the objective inspiring and motivational?

 Will achieving the objective make a significant impact?

Develop key results

Next, add 2–3 key results for each objective. Key results should be time-bound. They can be used to
indicate the amount of progress to achieve within a shorter period or to define whether you’ve met
your objective at the end of the project. They should also challenge you and your team to stretch
yourselves to achieve more.

Examples:

 X% new signups within first quarter post launch

 Increase advertiser spend by X%

 New feature adoption is at least X% 

 Maximum 2 critical bugs are reported by customers per Sprint

 Maintain newsletter unsubscribe rate at X%

Strong key results meet the following criteria:

 Results-oriented—not a task

 Measurable and verifiable

 Specific and time-bound

 Aggressive yet realistic

To help shape your key results, ask yourself and your team the following:

 What does success mean?

 What metrics would prove that we’ve successfully achieved the objective?

OKR development best practices

Here are some best practices to keep in mind when writing OKRs:

 Think of your objectives as being motivational and inspiring and your key results as
being tactical and specific. The objective describes what you want to do and the key
results describe how you’ll know you did it. 

 As a general rule, try to develop around 2–-3  key results for each objective.

 Be sure to document your OKRs and link to them in your project plan.

To learn more how OKRs work to help project managers define and create measurable project goals
and deliverables, check out the following resources:

 Google’s OKR playbook

 Planning company goals

  OKRs and SMART goals: What's the difference?

 OKRs and KPIs: What They Are and How They Work Together

 How OKR and project management work together

 OKR Examples

 OKR TED Talk video (John Doerr, the founder of OKRs, explains why the secret to
success is setting the right goals.)

Determining a project's scope

Welcome back. Project scope is a really important concept that I want to tell you about. You'll hear it
come up time and time again throughout each phase of the project life cycle. In fact, you may even
find yourself defending it, so let's get acquainted with scope. In this video, you will learn how to
define and determine scope. Simply put, your project scope includes the boundaries of a project. The
way we define it at Google is "an agreed upon understanding as to what is included or excluded
from a project." Scope helps ensure that your project is clearly defined and mapped out. That means
knowing exactly who the project will be delivered to and who will be using the end result of the
project. You also need a firm understanding of the project's complexity. Is it straightforward with an
easily manageable list of tasks? Or will it require extensive research, multiple rounds of approvals,
and a large-scale production process that will take years to complete? Scope also includes the
project timeline, budget, and resources. You need to clearly define these so that you can make sure
you're working within those boundaries and what's actually possible for the project to work. Poorly-
defined scope or major changes to your scope can cause changes to the budget, timeline, or even
final outcome of the project. Let's look at the scope of your Office Green project as an example. As a
reminder, the new Plant Pals service offers customers small, low-maintenance, plants like cacti and
leafy ferns that they can place on their desks. Customers can order them online or from a print
catalog, and Office Green will ship the plants straight to the customer's work address. Things to
consider for your scope, then, might be whether or not to provide replacement plants; which
customer segments will be offered the service; whether or not the online catalog is an app, a website,
or both; and how to ensure customers can purchase from the online catalog, whether by phone, PC,
Mac, iPhone, or Android. You might also consider the dimensions of the paper catalog and whether
it needs to be in color or black and white and on what kind of paper. Now, how do you actually
figure out the scope of your project? It's simple: talk to your sponsors and stakeholders, understand
what their goals are, and find out what is, and this is really important, what is not included in the
project. We've covered a number of different ways to help you determine scope. Here are a few
more helpful questions to add to the list. Where did the project come from? Why is it needed? What
is the project expected to achieve? What does the project sponsor have in mind? Who approves the
final results? Now you'll really be set. As for timing, defining project scope should happen during the
initial planning stage. You want to start figuring out the scope early on so that everyone can agree to
the same set of expectations. It will help mitigate the risks of big changes down the line. Although
you can always adjust the scope as planning continues, if you need to. Once you understand your
project scope, you want to document all the details so that anyone can refer back to it throughout
the life cycle of the project. We'll talk about some best practices for that at the end of this module.
Let's recap: a clearly defined scope describes all the details of a project and regulates what can be
added or removed as it progresses. While it's ultimately the project manager's responsibility to
monitor the project and make sure all the work and resources fall within its scope, team members
and stakeholders can be encouraged to do their part by focusing on the task that are the most
important to reaching the project's goal. The next video talks about the concepts of "in-scope" and
"out-of-scope" and the phenomenon called "scope creep." All three will help with ensuring your
project stays on track and within budget. Stay tuned.

Gathering information to define scope.

In this lesson, you are learning to define project scope status and differentiate in-scope, out-of-
scope, and scope creep factors that affect reaching the project goal. Let’s focus here on how to
identify vital elements of a project’s scope and examine the right questions to ask in order to define
it. 

Asking scope-defining questions

Imagine that while working in a restaurant management group, your manager calls and asks you to
“update the dining space,” then quickly hangs up the phone without providing further instruction. In
this initial handoff from the manager, you are missing a lot of information. How do you even know
what to ask?

Let’s quickly recap the concept of scope. The scope provides the boundaries for your project. You
define the scope to help identify necessary resources, resource costs, and a schedule for the
project. 

In the situation we just described, here are some questions you might ask your manager in order to
get the information you need to define the scope of the project:
Key takeaway
Taking the time to ask questions and ensure that you understand the scope of the project will help
reduce expenses, rework, frustration, and confusion. Make sure you understand the who, what,
when, where, why, and how as it applies to the scope. If you are missing any of that information,
focus your questions on those elements. The initiation phase of the project sets the foundation for
the project, so ensuring that you understand the scope and expectations during this stage is
essential. 

Monitoring and maintaining a project's scope.

Hi there. As you now know, an important part of project management is keeping an eye on your
project scope and knowing which tasks are truly part of the plan and which aren't. Tasks that are
included in the project and contribute to the project's overall goal are considered to be in-scope.
Tasks that aren't included are called out-of-scope. It's your job as a project manager to set and
maintain firm boundaries for your project so that your team can stay on track. For example, if the
copywriters or designers of the Plant Pals catalog, came up with the idea to expand the type of
plants being offered to top customers, you would have to point out that their suggestion is out-of-
scope and would take extra time and add to your budget costs. As you progress through the project
life cycle, you're going to encounter unexpected challenges or have new details or ideas brought to
your attention that could impact your project's success. Changes, growth, and uncontrolled factors
that affect a project scope at any point after the project begins are referred to as "scope creep."
Scope creep is a common problem, and it's not always easy to control. It's one that we struggle with
on every single project. It can happen on any project, in any industry. Imagine you're working in a
tech company and your project involves working with designers and engineers to update the
language icons' design on a mobile keyboard app for a smartphone. While the team is making the
update, they realize that the search icon and the voice input icon also need a design refresh. These
are very small features, and while technically not in-scope, the team feels it would take minimal effort
and provide lots of value. So they go ahead and make the updates. During a stakeholder review, it's
pointed out that there is a keyboard in English, but no keyboards for other languages, and the
suggestion is made to design additional keyboards. At this point, the project's scope is in danger of
expanding from a fairly simple icon update to a complex rollout of multiple keyboard layouts.
Adding the keyboards would impact the team's timelines, causing the project to take longer to finish.
It would also impact resourcing, because you would need to hire more people or existing team
members would have to work overtime. And it would increase the budget, since the team did not
anticipate costs for extra working hours or keyboard translations. This is just one example of scope
creep. Sometimes it's subtle ("Just design one or two more icons!") or more obvious ("Hey, can you
tack on designing keyboards for other languages?") By identifying scope creep and being proactive,
you protect your project and your project team. To help you combat scope creep, it's good to know
that there are two major sources from which it comes: external and internal. External sources of
scope creep are easier to recognize. For example, if you're working on a project with one main
customer, the customer might request changes, or the business environment around you might shift,
or the underlying technology you're using might change. While you can't control everything that
happens, there are some useful tips to keep in mind. First, make sure the stakeholders have visibility
into the project. You want them to know the details of what's going to be produced, what resources
are required, how much it will cost, and how much time it'll take. Also, get clarity on the
requirements and ask for constructive criticism of the initial product proposal. It's important to get
this information before any contracts are signed. Be sure to set ground rules and expectations for
stakeholder involvement once the project gets started. Come to an agreement on each of your roles
and responsibilities during execution and status reviews. Once you're clear on the project scope,
come up with a plan for how to deal with out-of-scope requests. Agree on who can make formal
change requests and how those requests will be evaluated, accepted, and performed. And finally, be
sure to get these agreements in writing. This way, you'll always have documentation to point if you, a
stakeholder, or the customer have a disagreement down the line. One of the leading causes of
external scope creep is not being clear on the requirements before defining the scope and getting
formal approval to move forward with the project. This is where those specific and measurable goals
and deliverables come into play. If the requirements aren't specific and if you haven't agreed on the
project's processes, deliverables, and milestones, then you're almost guaranteed to be dealing with
scope creep once the project begins. Internal sources of scope creep are trickier to spot and harder
to control. This kind of creep comes from members of the project team who suggest or even insist
on process or product changes or improvements. It's possible that a product developer will justify a
decision on the grounds of making the product better, even though it's going to cost more, or a
team lead might decide that a certain process is more efficient without realizing the impact the
change in process will have on other team members tasked with different parts of the project. What
you need to make clear to your team is that any change outside of the project scope comes off the
bottom line, threatens the schedule, and increases risk. There are no small impacts to project scope.
Any time a team member takes on an unplanned task, more is lost than just the time spent working
on that task. It's your responsibility as the project manager to maintain the limits of the project. The
best defense is to know the details of your project in and out so you're always prepared with the
most appropriate response to a new idea or request. Let's recap. Monitor your project's scope and
protect it at all costs. Even the most minor change can mean major risk to your project's success.
Coming up, I'll tell you about the triple constraint model and how you can use it to help determine
how your project changes affect scope. Stay tuned.

Launching and landing a project

Welcome back. At this point, you've learned a bit about setting SMART goals, along with defining
and managing the scope. It may be tempting to think that you're ready to kick off this project with
these two important pieces, but there is one common element that ensures you'll achieve these
goals within scope. And that key element is knowing when your project is delivered and you can call
it a success. Many people think the time to decide if a project is successful is when you've produced
the final outcome and presented it to the client. That's getting close. Delivering the final result of
your project to the client or user is what's called a project launch.

You finish building or creating a project, the tasks are completed, and the deliverables are done.
You've hit your goal. The project is successful and considered complete in that sense, but does it
work well? Did it achieve your desired outcome? The real deciding factor of project success is when
you put the final outcome to the test. Landing is when you actually measure the success of your
project using the success criteria established at the outset of the project.

This is a crucial part of goal setting that is often overlooked in the initiation phase. For example, think
about taking a trip on an airplane. It's not enough for the pilot to be able to get the plane off the
ground. To arrive safely at your destination, they've got to know how to land. Your success has to
continue beyond the point of delivering the final project. You need to be able to measure whether
the project functions as intended once it's put into practice.

Let's take the example of your project Plant Pals. You've managed to launch the new service with
success, the website has launched, the catalogs have been printed and delivered, orders have been
received, and revenue is starting to go up. It would be easy to call this a win and move on. But what
happens if the customers are unhappy once the plants are delivered? What if the plants start to wilt
and discolor after a couple of weeks? Just because launching the project and getting it out the door
looks like success on paper, that doesn't mean the project has managed to land. For most projects, a
launch itself isn't a meaningful measure of success. It's what comes after the launch that really
counts. Launches are only a means to an end, and looking beyond the launch is important to ensure
the launch achieves your overall goals.
If you start off looking beyond the launch to the landing, you're more likely to get where you're
trying to go. Since landing is a concept and not a finite definition, it's important to define what a
successful landing looks like for a particular project. Luckily, we have a way to measure and help you
ensure the success of your project. It's called success criteria, and if you can manage to follow it
through the life cycle of your project, you'll ultimately have a smooth landing. The success criteria
includes all the specific details of your goals and deliverables, and it can be a guide so you know
whether you've accomplished what you set out to do. Success criteria will set standards for how your
project will be judged. In the next video, I'll outline what you need to know about defining success
criteria and communicating project success.

See you in a bit.

Don't forget to land: Measuring project success

In this lesson, you are learning to distinguish the difference between a project launch and a project
landing. Let’s focus here on the difference between launches and landings and how to ensure that
your project will be completed successfully.

You will often hear companies celebrating the launch of a new product, service, or initiative, and it is
important to remember that even when your project is out in the world, your work isn’t complete.
When working on a project, the goal isn’t simply to launch it, but to land it. Landings occur once your
project achieves a measure of success. As project managers, landings are what we strive for and
what we celebrate. They are the ultimate reward for all of our efforts. 

Launching vs. landing a project

In project management, a project “launching” means you have delivered the final results of the
project to the client or user. You can’t solely base project success on when the client accepts the
project, though. Your work on a project won’t be complete until you “land” it by thoroughly measuring
the results. This is when the success criteria and the metrics you defined initially when setting
SMART goals will come in handy.  

Teams should be clear on what they are trying to accomplish, beyond just launching something to
users. Will your project increase retention? Will your project speed up a product feature? Depending
on the product and situation, the answers will differ, but it is important that your team aligns and
works toward the same measurable goal. 
Launch first, land later
Let’s consider an example: imagine you are a project manager for an eco-friendly organization. Your
organization asks you to create a training program for middle school students in your county to teach
them about the impacts of recycling. The county's goal is to increase recycling by 20% over the next
five years. You gather your team and start developing the learning content to build out this training
program. It takes you and your team one year to complete the research, development, and
production of this training. When you hand over the training to the school district, you are launching
the project. In order to know your project actually landed at the intended goal, you need to check
back in periodically over the next five years to see if the training program is on target to produce a
20% increase in recycling in the county.  

Launch and forget

A common mistake of many project teams is to “launch and forget” the results. This happens when a
project manager delivers the project to the client and the client accepts the project delivery, but the
project manager doesn’t assess if the project deliverables satisfy the customer or user. In the
example above, if you didn’t check back periodically over five years to assess the results, you would
have only launched—but not landed—the project. Launching and landings work in tandem to ensure
true success. 

A project landing shouldn’t create more hurdles. If done correctly, a landing creates greater
alignment within the teams on the end results you all desire, and it gives everybody on the team
better visibility on how to achieve success. 

Key takeaway
Launching your project to the client can be a very big moment for you. You handed over the project
to your client and now you can take a step back and breathe. But make sure you land your project,
as well. Look over your notes, talk with your team, meet with the client, and remember to return to
your intended deliverables and metrics to help you measure success.

Defining success criteria

Hello again. We've learned about the differences between launching and landing, and we've also
learned about the differences between delivering your project and finding out if the outcome performs
as expected. But how exactly do you know that your project is a success? How do you know if you've
actually landed? At the beginning of the project, you defined goals and deliverables that are measurable
meaning that you can determine if they were met. Similarly, you need to define success criteria that can
also be measured so you'll know whether they were met. The success criteria will tell you whether or
not the project as a whole was successful. They are the specific details of your goals and deliverables
that tell you whether you've accomplished what you set out to do. They are the standards by which the
project will be judged once it's been delivered to stakeholders and customers. Defining success criteria
also clarifies for your team what they're trying to accomplish beyond just launching something to users.
Is it to increase customer satisfaction with the service so they can continue to purchase more products?
Enhance an existing feature to retain customers? Depending on the project, the answers will be
different. But, it's important that a team is aligned and working towards a shared goal. Sometimes
forcing the conversation and clarifying what the end result looks like can bring to light questions and
areas of disagreement. There isn't a set process for determining success criteria, but I'll break down a
couple of key points to consider.

Remember the measurable part of your SMART goals? One of the questions to ask when making your
goals measurable is: How will I know when it is accomplished? The same question applies to your
project: How will you know when it's done? Only in this case, you want to ask: How will I know when it's
successfully accomplished? You can measure to determine your project success in a similar way to
measuring a goal. So go through your project goals and deliverables, review the scope, and identify the
measurable aspects of your project. These are going to be any of the metrics used in the goals and
deliverables, along with your budget and schedule details. Another thing you'll need to do is get clarity
from stakeholders on the project requirements and expectations. This is key! There are lots of people
involved with any project, and that means lots of ideas about what success looks like to each person.
You'll want to ask questions, such as: Who ultimately says whether or not the project is successful?
What criteria will be measured to determine success? What's the success of this project based on? Once
you've collected clarifying information, document and share all of it so that you, your team, and your
stakeholders can refer to it later. Let's try creating success criteria with the Office Green project. For
example, the goal is to increase revenue by 5% by the end of the year. One of the deliverables is a
website with a gallery of the different plant selections that are offered. It's not enough just to make a list
of criteria; you need a process for measuring success from start to finish throughout the entire project
life cycle. This way, you can make adjustments and ensure success by the time you're ready to land.
There are many metrics you can use, and for some products, it will make sense to use more than one.
The metrics you choose should be as closely aligned to your project's goal as possible. For example,
"happiness metrics" measure user attitudes and satisfaction, or perceived ease of use, and you can
measure these through surveys. For the Plant Pals project, we may consider a customer satisfaction rate
of 85% within the first three months of launching as a way to measure success. You can also consider
customer adoption and engagement metrics, along with more business-oriented metrics that track
things like sales and growth. Adoption refers to how the customer uses and adopts a product or service
without any issues. Engagement refers to how often or meaningful customer interaction and
participation is over time.

Adoption metrics might include launching a new product to a group of users and having a high amount
of them use or adopt it. Engagement metrics might include increasing the daily usage of a design feature
or increasing orders and customer interactions. Using the Office Green example, tracking how many
customers initially sign up for and use to Plant Pals service is an adoption metric. Tracking how many
customers renew their Plant Pals service, post about it, or share feedback are engagement metrics.

Once you've defined the metrics that you'll be measuring, think about how you track these metrics.
Evaluate which tools can help you collect the data you need to ensure you're staying on track. For
example, if you're measuring business metrics like revenue, consider tracking that in a spreadsheet or
dashboard, where you can easily spot gaps and trends. If you're measuring customer satisfaction, you
can think of a way to incentivize customers to participate in regular email surveys and create a system to
measure their responses when they participate. You can also utilize your project management tools to
check on efficiency metrics, like what percent of tasks are completed or whether the project is
progressing alongside the planned timelines.

It's smart to measure success with your team as a project or product is in progress. For example, you can
hold a project review once a month, have team members complete task checklists by certain deadlines,
or hold live feedback sessions with your users or customers.

There are many different ways to measure success. The key is to pick the methods that work best for
your success criteria. It's a good idea that, along with each success criteria on your list, to also include
the methods for how success will be measured, how often it's measured, and who's responsible for
measuring it. Share your success criteria document with your stakeholders and ask if they agree with
how the project's success will be determined. It's also a good idea to have the appropriate stakeholders
sign off on the success criteria. This way, everyone will be clear on who is responsible for which tasks,
and you'll all thoroughly understand what the path to success entails. Keep this documentation visible
throughout the duration of the project and clearly communicate it with your team every step of the
way. They're the ones who will be attempting to meet all the different requirements, so don't keep them
in the dark about what they're supposed to do or how they're supposed to do it. If done correctly,
defining your success criteria should create greater alignment within the team and give everybody
better visibility into how to achieve success. Clarity around success metrics also helps teams prioritize
which efforts are most impactful to their users.

Defining project success is a complex but crucial part of project management. With more and more
practice, this process will come more naturally to you in the planning stages and throughout your
project. We'll continue exploring and talking more about these concepts throughout the course. Nice
job! You're almost done with Module 2. I'll see you in a bit to review what we've covered.

Tracking and communicating success

criteria
We recently covered the topic about launching and landing projects, and now we will turn our focus
to ensuring that our landings are successful. 

Recall that SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound and help
keep a project on track for success. 

We can also determine the success of a project by the quality of the product, the ability to fulfill the
needs of your customers, and the need to meet the expectations of your stakeholders. For this
reading, we will discuss these particular success criteria, the metrics we use to track them, and how
and why we communicate our findings.  

Product quality 
The product, or final result, of a project has its own set of attributes that define success. The product
attributes that are necessary for the product’s success include completeness in features, quality of
features, unit cost, usability, etc. The extent that a product is complete will contribute to the product’s
success. This can apply to any project in which you deliver a product or tangible outcome at the end.
To keep us on track for success, we can create a list of product requirements to ensure that you do
not miss anything. For example, if the project produces word processing software, you need basic
features like text entry, formatting, saving, and printing. Since you require each feature to have a
functional word processor by today’s standards, you include these features on your checklist. 

To measure the success of a product, consider including these metrics on your checklist: 

 Track if you implemented the product’s priority requirements

 Track and assess the product’s number of technical issues or defects

  Measure the percentage of features you delivered or released at the end of the project

What is important to the customers or stakeholders

We have to pay attention to product metrics, but we also have to be mindful of stakeholder and
customer additional expectations for features and objectives. In the word processor example, a
stakeholder may want to add an additional functionality to easily create tables in a document with
text. Additionally, a strategic goal of the organization could be to create word processor software
with more collaborative ability than the word processors currently on the market. Each component is
necessary in order to meet customer and stakeholder expectations. Think about what needs the
project satisfies for your stakeholders or customers. These strategic goals tie back to the business
case and the reason you initiated the project in the first place. Often, you can measure the fulfillment
of strategic goals via user or customer metrics. Metrics to consider include:

 Evaluating user engagement with the product 

 Measuring stakeholder and customer satisfaction via surveys

 Tracking user adoption of the product by using sales data

Document, align, and communicate success

Understanding where we are and where we are going helps the project team determine if they are
on track. As you learned in the video on this topic, you need to get clarity from stakeholders on the
project requirements and expectations. There are many people involved with any project, and
success will look different for each of them. You want to ask questions, such as: Who ultimately says
whether or not the project is successful? What criteria will be measured to determine success? What
is the success of this project based on? It is best practice to get the key stakeholders or the steering
committee to review and approve your success criteria. This becomes a mutual agreement on how
all parties define the success of the project.

Key takeaway
Remember, all projects encounter change. All parties must have continuous access and alignment
to the success criteria agreed upon to avoid scope creep (uncontrolled change of the project’s
scope) or failed expectations at the end of the project. It’s important to document success criteria
upfront and continue to report on it throughout the project. You can make a copy of this document to
help you get alignment or download it here:
Using OKRs to evaluate progress

In this lesson, you are learning to define a project’s success criteria, the measurable attributes
project managers use to determine whether or not a project was successful as a whole. This reading
will focus on using OKRs to evaluate a project’s progress.

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

You have learned that OKRs—Objectives and Key Results--combine a goal and a metric to
determine a measurable outcome. Setting OKRs is a technique that can help project teams define,
communicate, and measure shared success criteria.

Objectives Key Results

Defines what needs to be The measurable outcomes that objectively define when the
achieved objective has been met

Describes a desired
outcome
Communicating and tracking OKRs
Conducting regular check-ins and actively tracking progress with your team can help ensure that
objectives are being met and that any issues are resolved as soon as possible.

Share your OKRs with your team. Once you’ve created OKRs for your project, it’s important to
communicate them to your team so that everyone knows how to focus and align their efforts. You
can do this by sharing a digital document, presenting them in a meeting, or adding them to an
internal website. OKRs can help your project team stick to its goals, monitor which are falling short,
and be continuously motivated to meet project objectives. 

Assign owners. Assign an owner to every key result so that everybody knows who’s responsible for
what. This helps add clarity and increases accountability.

Measuring progress
Measuring your OKRs is an important part of tracking and sharing your progress. One shortcut to
determining the status of a project is to score or grade your OKRs. While scores or grades don’t
provide a complete assessment of a project’s success, they’re helpful tools for determining how
close you came to achieving your objectives. You can then share your OKR scores with project
stakeholders and team members as part of your overall project updates.

Determine how you will score your OKRs. OKRs can be scored in different ways. You can score
based on a percentage of the objective completed, the completion of certain milestones, or a scale
of 1 to 10, for example. You can also use a “traffic light” scoring approach, where red means you
didn’t make any progress, yellow means you made some progress, and green means you completed
your objective. The simplest approach to scoring OKRs is the “yes/no” method, with “yes” meaning
you achieved your objective and “no” meaning you didn’t. Using this approach, a key result such as
“Launch a new widget marketing campaign” might be graded a 1 or 0 depending on whether it was
launched (1) or not (0). A more advanced scoring approach is to grade your key results on a scale.
With this method, if a key result was to “Launch six new features” and only three new features were
launched, the OKR might be graded 0.5. Generally, if the KR helped you achieve the objective, your
OKR should receive a higher score; if it didn't, your OKR should receive a lower score. At Google,
OKRs are usually graded on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, with 1.0 meaning the objective was fully achieved.
Each individual key result is graded and then the grades are averaged to determine the score for
that OKR. Set your scoring expectations. With Google’s 0.0–1.0 scale, the expectation is to set
ambitious OKRs and aim to achieve an average of at least 0.6 to 0.7 across all OKRs. For OKRs
graded according to percentage achieved, the sweet spot is somewhere in the 60–70% range.
Scoring lower may mean the team is not achieving what it could be. Scoring higher may mean the
aspirational goals are not being set high enough.
Schedule checkpoints. It’s important to regularly communicate the status of project OKRs with your
team and senior managers. For example, it can be helpful to have monthly check-ins on the
progress of OKRs to give both individuals and your team a sense of where they are. Typically, at the
end of the quarter, you’ll grade each of your OKRs to evaluate how well the team did to achieve its
goals.

Key takeaway
OKRs can help you define and measure your project’s success criteria. In order for OKRs to be used
to effectively meet your project’s success criteria, it’s important to share them with your team, assign
owners to each key result to ensure accountability, measure your OKRs’ progress by scoring them,
and track your OKRs’ progress by scheduling regular check-ins with your team.

To help you get started practicing writing your own OKRs, check out these resources:

To use the templates, click the links below and select “Use Template.”

 OKR Scorecard Template Doc

 OKR Scorecard Template Sheet

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the templates directly from the attachments
below.

Wrap-up
You're doing great! You've completed this module and have set yourself up for success. Way to go!
Defining goals and managing scope and ensuring a successful landing might seem tricky to master at
first, but the SMART method and the triple constraint triangle, tools, and methods for measuring success
criteria and clear communication will help you every step of the way.

In the next module, we will talk about the roles and responsibilities that come along with each project so
that everyone knows how they contribute to reaching the project's goals.
Introduction: Working effectively with stakeholders
Welcome back. In this module, we'll learn all about stakeholders and their importance to a project. In
the last set of videos, you learned the ins and outs of project scope. While exploring how a project can
be in-scope or out-of-scope, you learned about setting SMART goals. We also discussed launching a
project (getting it started) versus landing a project (whether or not it was successful). And there are a lot
more exciting topics to come! In this module you'll learn more about stakeholders. Remember that
stakeholders play a pivotal role. They are people who are interested in and affected by the project's
completion and success. You'll see that each person involved has a set role and set responsibilities to
help bring the project to a landing. Those roles include project sponsors, customers, team members, and
of course, you, the project manager. You will also find out about things like stakeholder mapping and
analysis and RACI charts. These are tools that help clarify roles and responsibilities and prevent
confusion on who takes ownership of which tasks. Throughout this module, you'll have plenty of hands-
on activities, discussion prompts, and readings to really help you master how to start a project. As we go
through each new skill, imagine checking off a to-do list. There's almost nothing more satisfying than
crossing off a to-do!.

Accessibility for project managers

Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Holly and I will be your accessibility instructor for this course.
Accessibility should be incorporated into every role at a company, whether a product designer,
communicator, developer or yes, project manager. In my role of accessibility education program
manager at Google, I help ensure all Googlers are educated on accessibility, from building accessible
products for the entire world, to communicating accessibility with you throughout this course. I'm deaf
myself, so I am able to share my experiences as a person with a disability too and help others
understand that having a disability isn't a barrier in itself. It's the world around us that we must strive to
make it accessible for everyone. Accessibility can be defined in a number of different ways. To me, it
means actively removing any barriers that might prevent persons with disabilities from being able to
access technology, information, or experiences, and leveling in the playing field so everyone has an
equal chance of enjoying life and being successful. A disability is often defined as a physical or mental
condition that substantially limits a major life activity, such as walking, talking, seeing, hearing, or
learning. Over one billion people in the world have a disability, 1 billion. That's more than the population
of the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Brazil combined. Disability is diverse and
intersectional. Someone can be born with a condition or acquire it later in life. Disability can affect us all
in some way, whether directly or indirectly, and at any time, from permanent, like deafness, to
temporary, like a broken leg, to situational, like trying to operate a TV remote control in the dark. When
you create solutions for persons with disabilities, you are not only serving the critical audience of people
with permanent disabilities, you are also unlocking secondary benefits for everyone who may move in
and out of disability over time. As you progress through this course, it's also important to keep in mind
your fellow classmates. Setting the expectation that you'll be interacting with others and learn and work
differently is a key strength of working with accessibility in mind. Asking others what they need from you
to learn and communicate and also sharing what you need if you have a disability yourself is important
to working well together as a team. In project management, you, yourself, people on your project team,
or people highly invested in your project may have a disability, whether visible or invisible. As a project
manager, you are responsible for making sure a group of people can come together to achieve a
common goal using shared tools and systems. In order to be successful, you need to make sure the
infrastructure and culture you set up works for everyone. Knowing this is a key element of project
management. I'll teach you how to make your work and content accessible. I'll also help you become a
better project manager by considering accessibility in your future projects. I'll offer tips and best
practices throughout the program, starting with this one. Did you know that many technologies that we
all enjoy started out as an accessibility feature? Think about the Google Assistant, which allows you to
control your home with your voice, or close captioning, which makes it possible to watch the TV above a
crowded, noisy bar. By considering accessibility, you can impact everyone's lives for the better. I'm
excited to share more with you throughout the program where you'll learn more about project
management and prepare for a career in this field. See you later.

Choosing a project team

In this video, I'll take you through the process of choosing roles and responsibilities of all the people on
your project team. In order to decide who does what on a project, we have to consider and outline our
needs. Choosing the right people for a team is a big task, and one every project manager should take
seriously. After all, these are the people who do the work on the project, so we want to make sure we
have the right people lined up. When identifying people resources, we need to carefully consider the
project needs and use that info to guide our decision-making. First, a project manager will make a list of
roles that they'll need on their team to complete each task. In the same way that a project manager is
accountable for the overall initiation, planning, execution, and completion of a project, the person in
each role is accountable for specific tasks within the project life cycle. For example, a home construction
project team might include roles on their lists like an architect, a site manager, and multiple construction
workers. Once the tasks are clearly laid out, the project manager decides how many people they'll need
on their team. This can vary greatly depending on the project size. For small projects, a team may only
need three or four people to complete the deliverables on time, and for larger projects, a team might
include dozens. At Google, we sometimes have hundreds of Googlers working on the same project.
Getting the team size right is important for a bunch of reasons. For example, when there's a lot of
people on a project, communication sometimes becomes difficult. That makes it more likely for
someone to miss important details. But if your team is too small, there might not be enough people to
finish all the tasks. Once you know how many people you need on your team, you have to think about
who does what. To decide on the right person for each role, a project manager needs to think carefully
about skills. Makes sense, right? If you're managing the construction of a house, you want to note that
the construction workers who are building the frame or installing the drywall have the skills needed to
do it properly. It's on the project manager to ensure that everyone on the team has the right skills to do
the job, but it's also important to remember that skills can be taught. If someone doesn't have a certain
skill initially, they might still be a great fit for the team. Maybe this person brings a positive attitude and
attention to detail— perfectly good reasons to have them on your team. Just keep in mind that if a
teammate doesn't have the necessary skills, it's important that they are trained in time so as not to
cause project delays. When choosing teammates, a project manager also has to factor in each person's
availability and whether they'll feel motivated to complete their assigned tasks. For example, you might
know a fantastic site manager who would make a great asset to the team, but if they're already staffed
on another big project, they might not have the time to commit to yours. Or even if they do have the
time, they may not feel like this project will give them the visibility they need for a promotion.
Motivation is a key ingredient to great work. It's a good idea to pick people who are excited to get
involved, but of course, we don't always get to choose our resources. Sometimes another manager or
team lead might just assign people to roles. When this happens, it's the project manager's challenge to
deliver the best work with what we're given. Let's check in on our project at Office Green, where we're
rolling out a new service. As a project manager, it's up to you to decide who you need on your team. You
have to ask yourself questions on things like staff experience, availability, the workspace, team member
workload on other projects, and more. For example, who on the team has office landscaping
experience? Who's local to the city where the launch will happen? Who can be fully dedicated to this
project for the next eight weeks? There's no exact formula for putting together the right team, which
makes it a little tricky. Every situation is different and calls for a different set of skills, experience, and
perspectives. It can be helpful to look deeper into each task on the project. Always ask yourself these
key questions: how many people do I need on my team each step of the way? Which team members do
I need and when? Are those experts already busy on other projects? Who makes the final decisions on
project resources? So there's a lot to think about when putting together your dream team. Up next, we'll
learn more about all the different roles on a project. See you there!

Review: The building blocks of a project dream team

In the previous video, we explored some considerations for choosing your project team and
assigning their roles and responsibilities. Let’s recap what you learned and expand upon what to
think about when building your project team. 
Too big, too small, or just right?
Once you lay the foundation for your project by outlining your goals and expectations, it is time to
build your dream team! Though before we can build our dream team, we need to figure out how
many people we need. This number will largely depend on the size of the project itself. Complex
projects with large divisions of work will usually require larger project teams. Simple projects with
straightforward expectations may only require a few people on the project team. As a project
manager, it is your job to help find the right balance based on what is needed.

The right skills and abilities to fill the role

Multiple roles exist in every project. On smaller teams, multiple roles may be filled by one person.  To
meet the needs of more specialized projects, project managers might require people who have the
necessary technical skills. Technical skills are the skills specific to the task that needs to be
performed. For example, on the Office Green project, necessary technical skills may include indoor
landscaping design for the layout of the plants within the offices and floral design of plant arranging.  

Technical skills are highly valued, but they are not the only skills that are important for high
functioning teams. Interpersonal skills, also known as people skills or soft skills, such as patience
and conflict mediation, can help team members. This allows the team to blend their technical
expertise with collaborative skills in order to get the job done. When a team applies their
interpersonal skills, they can minimize team-related issues. 

Problem-solving skills are a must for all team members, especially when it comes to large,
complex projects. As a project manager, you will not be able to solve every problem for your team.
At some point, they will need to use their own judgment to problem-solve and get the work done. 

An underrated skill set for project team members are leadership skills. Strong leadership skills help
team members navigate organizational boundaries and effectively communicate with stakeholders to
generate buy-in. 
Who is available?
In projects, the availability of your team is always a big concern. This is especially true in Matrix
organizations, where team members have multiple bosses. It is not uncommon to pull a team
member onto another project before your project is complete. In a perfect world, you only pick those
who can stay on the project for its entire life cycle. You may find that you don’t get to pick certain
members of your team at all, which is called a pre-assignment. In these cases, the sponsor assigns
team members to your project.

Keep in mind that you need to value diversity early on when building your team. On diverse teams,
everyone is able to use their unique professional and personal experiences to contribute to a more
successful project. Diversity is best leveraged when it is acknowledged and highlighted as an asset.
Many people avoid discussing their differences, but if you encourage those conversations, you will
find a richer understanding and greater creativity that comes from people working together across
identity differences. To do this effectively, it is important to dedicate time early on in the team
building process to develop trust between team members. Team members who understand one
another are more likely to trust each other and feel safe sharing different points of view or offer a
competing perspective. This will also allow them to more easily offer constructive feedback or be
supportive if the team dynamics face challenges at any point.

What motivates them?

Be sure to take note of the motivation level of your team members and the impact it may have on
your project. Just because a person is pre-assigned to a project, doesn’t necessarily mean they
have low interest in it, but a person who proactively volunteered for it may have additional motivation
to do the work.

As a project manager, it is your responsibility to engage your team and keep them motivated. This is
where your influence as a leader is required to keep the team engaged and ready to overcome any
obstacles that may appear. Engaging in a respectful manner and maintaining a positive outlook with
your team during times of adversity are simple ways to keep your team motivated.  

Key takeaway 
In summary, team size, skills, availability, and motivation are the building blocks to creating your
very own dream team. Always keep in mind that a project manager does not just select dream
teams, they create dream teams through collaboration under great leadership. This is the leadership
that you will provide as a project manager. 
Defining project roles
As we mentioned in the last video, when you're managing a project to meet certain goals, having the
right team around you is a must. Why is it so important? It's because there could be so many moving
parts on a project. That means you really need to have confidence and trust that the people around you
have the skills and motivation to do the work well.

To feel confident in your team, you need to know each person's role from the start. Clearly laying out
the responsibilities for each role helps everyone know what project tasks they're accountable for. Odds
are, you can't complete this project on your own, even if you're the best project manager of all time,
which we know you will be. Before we jump into the specific roles on a project, we want to call out that
some roles aren't fixed. Sometimes team members need to adapt and take on more than one role at a
time. This usually happens if the company is small or resources are limited. For example, at a small firm,
you might be the project manager, designer, and marketer. Whether they're fixed or not, we always
have these project roles. Project sponsors, team members, customers or users, stakeholders, and of
course, the project manager. Let's learn more about each of them. A project sponsor is the person who
is accountable for the project and who ensures the project delivers the agreed upon value to the
business. They play a vital leadership role throughout the process. Sometimes they fund the project.

The sponsor will probably communicate directly with managers and key stakeholders. Team members
are the heart of the operation. They're the people doing the day to day work and making the project
happen. The customers are the people who will get some sort of value from a successfully landed
project. Since the project aims to deliver something useful to the customers, the customer's needs
usually define the project's requirements. You can think of them as the buyers of the project.

In some situations, we have both customers and users for a project, and we need to differentiate
between the two. Simply put, users are the people that ultimately use the product that your project will
produce. To make the distinction nice and clear for you, think of it this way: a software company has
created a type of software that allows teams to communicate with each other in an instant message
application. The software is purchased by corporation ABC; they are the customer. But the users are
everyone within corporation ABC that will be using the instant message application every day.
Stakeholders are anyone involved in the project; those who have a vested interest in the project's
success. Primary stakeholders are people who expect to benefit directly from the project's completion,
while secondary stakeholders play an intermediary role and are indirectly impacted by the project.

Secondary stakeholders may be contractors or members of a partner organization, but both primary and
secondary stakeholders help project managers define project goals and outcomes. And finally, we can't
forget the project manager: the person who plans, organizes and oversees the whole project. That's you.
Let's now plug these roles into our Office Green project. Recall that Office Green is a commercial plant
company that does interior landscaping and plant design for offices and other commercial businesses.
We're launching our new plant service, so if you recall our SMART goal— which must be specific,
measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound— is to roll out a new service to provide office plants
to top clients by the end of the year.

There's a lot to do when launching a new service. Plants need to be ordered and delivered every few
days. New clients will need to be familiarized with Office Green and its procedures. And there will be
ongoing updates to the website and app. For Office Green's launch, our project sponsor is the Director
of Product. They approve the project's budget and ensure that everything stays aligned to the vision,
which in this case, is that inexpensive and easy-to-maintain live plants are provided in order to improve
the employees' work environments. The team's made up of people from across departments, and
they're all working together to support the project. For example, the marketing department has
assigned some people to the team because they'll need to tell customers about this new service. On this
project, the landscape designer is also the website designer. This is an example of where a team
member plays more than one role. And you? You're the project manager. You're the one managing the
information, people, and schedule to carry this project to a successful landing. Our customers for this
project are buyers at offices who might be interested in Office Green's services, such as the office
managers or procurement teams. However, the users are the employees who work at the offices
because they're the ones who enjoy the plants. And finally, all of these people are project stakeholders.

Secondary stakeholders won't play active roles throughout all phases of the project but still need to be
informed as they are a component of what the project needs to succeed. For example, these include
Office Green's investors, who are helping to fund the new service launch, and the Office Green
receptionist, who will answer a lot of customer questions about the new service once it's launched. So,
now that we know why it's so important to decide on these roles early on and how these roles work
within a project, let's put them into action!

Essential project roles

In this lesson, you are learning to define project roles and responsibilities. Let’s now build on what
you have learned about building your project team and focus on how to further identify the core roles
and responsibilities that are critical to any project.   

The project manager

Although all team members are responsible for their individual parts of the project, the project
manager is responsible for the overall success of the team, and ultimately, the project as a whole. A
project manager understands that paying close attention to team dynamics is essential to
successfully completing a project, and they use team-building techniques, motivation, influencing,
decision-making, and coaching skills, to keep their teams strong. 

Project managers integrate all project work by developing the project management plan, directing
the work, documenting reports, controlling change, and monitoring quality. 

In addition, project managers are responsible for balancing the scope, schedule, and cost of a
project by managing engagement with stakeholders. When managing engagement with
stakeholders, project managers rely on strong communication skills, political and cultural awareness,
negotiation, trust-building, and conflict management skills.

Stakeholders
Have you ever heard the phrase “the stakes are high"? When we talk about “stakes,” we are
referring to the important parts of a business, situation, or project that might be at risk if something
goes wrong. To hold stake in a business, situation, or project means you are invested in its success.
There will often be several parties that will hold stake in the outcome of a project. Each group’s level
of investment will differ based on how the outcome of the project may impact them. Stakeholders are
often divided into two groups: primary stakeholders, also known as key stakeholders, and
secondary stakeholders. A primary stakeholder is directly affected by the outcome of the project,
while a secondary stakeholder is indirectly affected by the outcome of the project. 

Primary stakeholders usually include team members, senior leaders, and customers. For example,
imagine that you are a project manager for a construction company that is commissioned to build out
a new event space for a local catering company. On this project, the owners of the catering company
would be primary stakeholders since they are paying for the project.

Another primary stakeholder could be the CEO of your construction company. If the CEO likes to be
directly involved with projects for local businesses like the catering company, that would make them
a primary stakeholder. 

An example of a secondary stakeholder might be the project’s point of contact in legal. While the
project outcome might not affect them directly, the project itself would impact their work when they
process the contract. Each project will have a different set of stakeholders, which is why it’s
important for the project manager to know who they are, what they need, and how to communicate
with them.

Project team members 

Every successful team needs strong leadership and membership, and project management is no
exception! Project team members are also considered primary stakeholders, since they play a
crucial role in getting the job done. Your team members will vary depending on the type, complexity,
and size of the project. It’s important to consider these variables as you select your project team and
begin to work with them. Remember that choosing teammates with the right technical skills and
interpersonal skills will be valuable as you work to meet your project goals. If you are not able to
select your project team, be sure to champion diversity and build trust to create harmony within the
team. 

Sponsor
The project sponsor is another primary stakeholder. A sponsor initiates the project and is
responsible for presenting a business case for its existence, signing the project charter, and
releasing resources to the project manager. The sponsor is very important to the project, so it’s
critical to communicate with them frequently throughout all project phases. In our construction
company example, the CEO could also be the project sponsor.

Key takeaway 
Although the roles involved in each project will vary, all projects will include a project manager and
primary stakeholders who are directly impacted by the project’s outcome, such as team members,
senior leaders, the customer, and the project sponsor. Secondary stakeholders, whose work less
directly impacts the project, may also play a role. Keep these roles in mind as we take a closer look
at the importance of stakeholders.
John: The importance of a project team
My name is John Fyle, and I'm a technical program manager for Google in the Chicago office. I've worked
a couple different companies. I've worked at startups, I've worked at grocery companies, and I've
worked at Google. And what I've found is at some companies, what you find is that there's engineers
that come in and what they're looking for is direction. They want to be told what to do; they want to be
handed the task and just execute on it. At Google, people are really invested in their product. We call
Google a bottom-up kind of culture. You know, a lot of companies, you have this directive from the top
saying "This is what we're gonna do," but at Google, people are so passionate about the industry and
what they're working on, that the ideas really come up and bubble up from the bottom. What I always
tell folks is that the technical and hard skills of program management, you can pick up in a book. You can
learn about Agile, and you can learn about Extreme Programming. You can learn about all these things:
planning, retrospectives, all these great terms and tools and stuff like that. At the end of the day, that's
all they are, though. They're just a tool, and you can't use a hammer for a screw. It's the same thing with
program managment; you can't use the same tools for every project. You have to learn what's going on
in a given team, in a given project, and a given group of people. And so at the end of the day, really the
challenge is understanding the dynamics of the people that you work with. I like to say that the key
about program managment is people and contexts. You have to understand the people that you're
working with, you have to understand the context, and only then can you apply the skills that you
learned. You won't always have the opportunity to pick and choose what people you want to work on a
project, and that's okay, because you can just use those tools that you've gained in the past to
understand the backgrounds and the style and the personalities of the people that you're working with.
The most important part about program management is understanding the personalities of the people
you work with so that you can tailor your approach to make sure that you're working effectively with
them. Think about it this way. You might be working with an introverted person. That person needs
different types of attention that an extroverted person. An extroverted person wants to talk about their
ideas and their product plans in a meeting. An introverted person, you might want to get their feedback
offline or to have an async kind of forum opportunity for them to voice their opinion. It's really not going
to be cut and dry every time you work on a project, and that's why it's really, really important that
you're flexible in your approach. You want to have people that are challenging the choices that we
make. But at the end of the day, we all need to agree on a common goal and a common vision so that
we can move forward. We don't want distractions because that's the thing that the one thing that can
slow things down. At the end of the day, technical problems aren't that hard. People problems are really
hard. And making sure that your team is sold and bought in on a vision and the project is super, super
important. It's your goal and your job role as a program manager to motivate the team and make sure
that everyone's on the same page.
Completing a stakeholder analysis
We just saw how important stakeholders are to the project and how both primary and secondary
stakeholders help project managers define project goals and outcomes. As a quick refresher, primary
stakeholders are people who will benefit directly from the project's success, while secondary
stakeholders are indirectly impacted by the project's success. Having all these different people involved
on a project can get confusing, and that's where a stakeholder analysis comes in handy. This is a visual
representation of all the stakeholders. It helps you avoid surprises, build necessary partnerships, and
ensure you're involving the right people at the right time. When done well, your stakeholder analysis
helps you see all the opportunities for success and the potential risks, it illustrates which stakeholders
are taking on which responsibilities, and it can help you include the right people in important
conversations, which is key to getting the support you need throughout the project. There are three key
steps to kicking off a stakeholder analysis. First, make a list of all the stakeholders that the project
impacts. Then determine the level of interest and influence for each stakeholder. And finally, assess
their ability to participate, and find ways to involve them. In the second step, we talk about influence
and interests. What do those terms mean here? Influence measures how much power a stakeholder has
and how much the stakeholder's actions affect the project outcome. In our Office Green example, the
Director of Product, who first initiated the project and oversees new products and services, has a huge
amount of influence, while the vendor providing the greenery has less influence. Interest is pretty much
what it sounds like: How much are the needs of the stakeholder affected by the project operations and
outcomes? For example, Office Green's human resources department may not have as much interest in
the product launch as a sales department does. The power grid is a super useful two-by-two grid used
for conducting a stakeholder analysis. We use the power grid to assign each stakeholder's level of
importance to the project, measuring their interest and influence. The position of the stakeholder on
the grid usually determines their active role in the project. The higher the interest and influence, the
more important the stakeholder is to the project's success. Without their support, it's unlikely that the
project will successfully land. These people are our key stakeholders. Now that you have a better idea of
each stakeholder's position on the team, you can plan how to best manage everyone. There are four
different techniques you can use for managing stakeholders. The first group of stakeholders are the key
players, or key stakeholders. You'll find these people in the top right corner of the grid. To best manage
key stakeholders, you'll want to closely partner with them to reach the desired outcomes. Of course, not
everyone's a key stakeholder, but each role, even the non-key stakeholder, gets a spot on the grid. You'll
find stakeholders with higher influence but lower interest in the top left corner of the grid. To manage
these stakeholders, you'll want to consult with them and meet their needs. Their opinions and input are
important to the project. The Director of Product has high influence, but may not be vested into day-to-
day activities, and therefore will have a lower interest. Stakeholders with lower influence but high
interest are in the right bottom corner of the grid. For these stakeholders, you'll want to show
consideration for them by keeping them up-to-date on the project. It's unlikely they'll need a say in
what's going on, but keeping them informed is important. For example, the customer success team may
have lower influence but high interest since they'll work directly with clients on the new product. Last
up, we have stakeholders with low influence and low interest. You'll find these in the bottom left corner.
They're the least important of the stakeholders, but this doesn't mean that they don't matter. It might
just be that for this particular project, they aren't as integral. So for this project, you mainly want to
monitor them, keeping them in the know. Creating a grid like this is an effective way to track who should
be communicated with and when. This grid here is an example of how that might play out, depending on
the project and the stakeholders. You may also want to create a steering committee made up of a high
influence and high interest stakeholders. These people will be the most senior decision-making body on
any project. They have the authority to make changes to budget and approve updates to timeline or
scope. The project manager isn't a member of the committee, but they're responsible for bringing the
right project information to the steering committee so that decisions can be quickly made. How you
engage your stakeholders from this point on depends on your particular situation. There are different
ways to involve each stakeholder, and you have to be strategic to get helpful and relevant input from
the right people at the right time. You'll want to meet with some stakeholders every single day, and
others you'll just send periodic updates to. Stakeholder buy-in is the process of involving these people in
decision-making to hopefully reach a broader consensus on the organization's future. To get
stakeholders to buy in on the project, you'll have to pay particular attention to your high-impact
stakeholders and make sure they feel looped in. You'll want to explain to them how the project will help
them achieve their goals, and you want to have their support later on if any issues come up. Here are
some important things to keep in mind when communicating with stakeholders: If you have one main
stakeholder, that stakeholder is likely to be highly influential and needs constant communication. But if
you're on a larger project with numerous stakeholders, they won't be quite as involved in the day-to-day
tasks. For stakeholders who need time to make decisions about the project, over-communicate early on.
For example, hold frequent meetings and send daily end-of-day progress emails. This way, they have
enough time to weigh the options and make decisions. Think about the level of project details each
stakeholder needs. You don't want to spend time diving deep with stakeholders that just need a project
summary. For example, the facilities team that delivers the product doesn't need daily updates on
vendor pricing or website issues. On the flip side, do spend time updating key members that need
frequent updates. The sales team will need to know pricing and availability changes, so a weekly check-
in might make sense here. Great work. You just completed your own stakeholder analysis. Up next, we'll
check out another tool, RACI charting. See you there.

Prioritizing stakeholders and generating their buy-in

In this lesson, you are learning to complete a stakeholder analysis and explain its significance. Let’s
focus here on how to prioritize the various types of stakeholders that can exist on a project, generate
stakeholder buy-in, and manage their expectations. 
Conducting a stakeholder analysis 
Stakeholders are an essential part of any project. A project manager’s ability to balance stakeholder
requirements, get their buy-in, and understand when and how to involve them is key to successfully
fulfilling a project.  

It is key to keep stakeholders organized in order to understand when and how to involve them at the
right time. In an earlier video, we introduced the stakeholder analysis, a useful tool that project
managers use to understand stakeholders’ needs and help minimize hiccups during your project life
cycle. 

Let’s review the key steps in the stakeholder analysis:

1. Make a list of all the stakeholders the project impacts. When generating this list, ask
yourself: Who is invested in the project? Who is impacted by this project? Who
contributes to this project? 

2. Determine the level of interest and influence for each stakeholder—this step helps you
determine who your key stakeholders are. The higher the level of interest and influence,
the more important it will be to prioritize their needs throughout the project. 

3. Assess stakeholders’ ability to participate and then find ways to involve them. Various
types of projects will yield various types of stakeholders—some will be active
stakeholders with more opinions and touchpoints and others will be passive
stakeholders, preferring only high-level updates and not involved in the day-to-day.
That said, just because a stakeholder does not participate as often as others does not
mean they are not important. There are lots of factors that will play a role in determining
a stakeholder’s ability to participate in a project, like physical distance from the project
and their existing workload.

Pro tip: You might want to form a steering committee during some projects. A steering committee
is a collection of key stakeholders who have a high level of power and interest in a project. A
steering committee can influence multiple departments within the organization, which means that
they have the potential to release a greater number of resources to the project manager.  

Visualizing your analysis

A power grid shows stakeholder interest in the project versus their influence over the project. This
four-quadrant tool helps project managers evaluate how to manage their stakeholders. It is used to
determine the appropriate level of engagement required by the project team needed to gain the
stakeholders’ trust and buy-in.
Take the time at the start of the project to establish your stakeholder approach. List the stakeholders
and then place them into the appropriate places on the grid. Being able to visualize their placement
will help you manage communications and expectations. Having a quick reference tool to drive your
communication actions will also allow you to have the ability to spend more time doing other tasks
on your project. 

Pro tip: While these tools help organize information, they do not necessarily make the difference
between successful and unsuccessful stakeholder engagement. What will make for successful
stakeholder engagement is the project manager’s ability to know their stakeholders’ motivations and
inspirations. This takes time, interpersonal skills, and insight into the organization’s internal political
workings. Remember, each project is different, and your project may need tweaks along the way as
you grow as a project manager. Making necessary changes means you are doing something right.
Just make sure to check in and ensure that you are well on track, engaging your stakeholders
successfully, and delivering on your project!

Generating stakeholder buy-in 

Once you organize and assess your stakeholders, it is time to start making some decisions on
whose buy-in is absolutely necessary for success, whose requirements deserve the most attention,
and what level of communication each stakeholder will require.
Gaining key stakeholder buy-in is essential to ensuring that your project is not deprioritized or
deprived of resources. 

Tips for gaining key stakeholder buy-in include: 

 Clearly mapping the work of the project to the goals of the stakeholder.

 Describing how the project aligns with the goals of the stakeholder's department or
team.

 Listening to feedback from the stakeholder and finding ways to incorporate their
feedback into the project's charter where appropriate.

Manage your stakeholders’ expectations by presenting a realistic view of your team’s abilities. Do
not over-promise and under-deliver! 

Optional reading

This article, titled Roll Call: We Asked the Project Management Community: What Steps Do You
Take To Identify and Prioritize All Stakeholders at the Start of a Project?, describes additional
strategies for identifying stakeholders to further increase your understanding.

Creating OKRs for your project

In this lesson, you are learning to define and create measurable project goals and
deliverables. This reading will focus on creating effective objectives and key results
(OKRs) and how to implement them into your project.

What are OKRs?

OKR stands for objectives and key results. They combine a goal and a metric to determine a
measurable outcome.

Objectives Key Results

Defines what needs to be achieved The measurable outcomes that objectively define when the objective has
 Objectives Key Results

Describes a desired outcome

Company-wide OKRs are used to set an ultimate goal for an entire organization, while team,
department, and project-level OKRs describe the focused results each group will need to achieve in
order to support the organization.

OKRs and project management

As a project manager, OKRs can help you expand upon project goals and further clarify the
deliverables you’ll need from the project to accomplish those goals. Project-level OKRs help
establish the appropriate scope for your team so that you can say “no” to requests that may get in
the way of them meeting their objectives. You can also create and use project-level OKRs to help
motivate your team since OKRs are intended to challenge you to push past what’s easily
achievable. 

Creating OKRs for your project

Set your objectives

Project objectives should be aspirational, aligned with organizational goals, action-oriented,

concrete, and significant. Consider the vision you and your stakeholders have for your project and
determine what you want the project team to accomplish in 3–6 months.

Examples:

 Build the most secure data security software 

 Continuously improve web analytics and conversions

 Provide a top-performing service

 Make a universally-available app

 Increase market reach

 Achieve top sales among competitors in the region

Strong objectives meet the following criteria. They are:

  Aspirational

 Aligned with organizational goals

 Action-oriented

 Concrete

 Significant

To help shape each objective, ask yourself and your team:

 Does the objective help in achieving the project’s overall goals?

 Does the objective align with company and departmental OKRs?

 Is the objective inspiring and motivational?

 Will achieving the objective make a significant impact?

Develop key results

Next, add 2–3 key results for each objective. Key results should be time-bound. They can be used to
indicate the amount of progress to achieve within a shorter period or to define whether you’ve met

your objective at the end of the project. They should also challenge you and your team to stretch
yourselves to achieve more.

Examples:

 X% new signups within first quarter post launch

 Increase advertiser spend by X%

 New feature adoption is at least X% 

 Maximum 2 critical bugs are reported by customers per Sprint

 Maintain newsletter unsubscribe rate at X%

Strong key results meet the following criteria:

 Results-oriented—not a task

 Measurable and verifiable

 Specific and time-bound

 Aggressive yet realistic

To help shape your key results, ask yourself and your team the following:
  What does success mean?

 What metrics would prove that we’ve successfully achieved the objective?

OKR development best practices

Here are some best practices to keep in mind when writing OKRs:

 Think of your objectives as being motivational and inspiring and your key results as
being tactical and specific. The objective describes what you want to do and the key
results describe how you’ll know you did it. 

 As a general rule, try to develop around 2–-3  key results for each objective.

 Be sure to document your OKRs and link to them in your project plan.

To learn more how OKRs work to help project managers define and create measurable project goals
and deliverables, check out the following resources:

 Google’s OKR playbook

 Planning company goals

 OKRs and SMART goals: What's the difference?

 OKRs and KPIs: What They Are and How They Work Together

 How OKR and project management work together

 OKR Examples

 OKR TED Talk video (John Doerr, the founder of OKRs, explains why the secret to
success is setting the right goals.)

Optional Activity Exemplar: Create OKRs

for your project

Here is a completed exemplar along with an explanation of how the exemplar fulfills the expectations
for the activity.  
Completed Exemplar
Click the link to create a copy of the exemplar. If you don’t have a Google account, download the
exemplar directly from the attachment below.

Link to exemplar: Activity Exemplar: Project OKRs

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the exemplar directly from the attachment
below.

Activity Exemplar_ Project Move It OKRs.docx

Assessment of Exemplar

Compare the exemplar to your completed OKRs. Review your work using each of the criteria in the
exemplar. What did you do well? Where can you improve? Use your answers to these questions to
guide you as you continue to progress through the course. 

Note: The exemplar gives three key results for each objective, but there are many more you could
develop. Because you can measure success in various ways, your lists of key results may differ.
The important thing to keep in mind is that your OKRs should help you expand upon your project
goals and further clarify the deliverables you’ll need from the project in order to accomplish those
goals.

Let’s review each OKR in the exemplar:

OKR 1: Actively and meaningfully engage the public to generate buy-in and project support

Each key result uses measurable data to define success for the objective. For example, “400
attendees to 12 public meetings focused on transit talks” measures engagement in the number of
attendees at public meetings about transit.
 OKR #2: Make it easy to get around the greater Wonder City area via public transportation.

Each key result uses measurable data to define success for the objective. For example, “New
ridership increases by 25% within three months” measures the increase in bus ridership in the city in
response to the community’s improved ability to get around the city with ease. 

OKR #3: Promote public transportation as a convenient alternative to driving.

Each key result uses measurable data to define success for the objective. For example, “80% click-
through rate from banner ads on social media” measures the success of the promotional campaign
in public engagement with social media ads.

OKR #4: Provide a reliable and consistent public transportation service.

Each key result uses measurable data to define success for the objective. For example, “100% of
new busses meet government safety standards at monthly inspections” measures the reliability and
consistency of busses that pass regular safety inspections.

Roll Call
We Asked the Project Management Community: What
Steps Do You Take To Identify and Prioritize All
Stakeholders at the Start of a Project?

ARTICLE  Stakeholder Engagement  1 November 2018

PM Network
How to cite this article:
Roll Call: We Asked the Project Management Community: What Steps Do You Take To Identify and
Prioritize All Stakeholders at the Start of a Project? (2018). PM Network, 32(11), 20–21.

Reprints and Permissions 

ISTOCKPHOTO
We asked the project management community:
What steps do you take to identify and prioritize all stakeholders at the start of
a project?
OPPORTUNITY TO IDENTIFY
What steps do you take to identify all stakeholders at the start of a project?
Share your tips on the PMI Project, Program and Portfolio Management
LinkedIn Group.

ANALYZE IMPACT

“I like to start by creating a list of all impacted areas or departments, internal

and external. Then, I add names of stakeholders as I meet with various
leaders. Even if I think I've identified everyone, at the end of every
conversation I ask, ‘Is there anyone else you'd recommend I connect with?’
For prioritization, I use a digital app for notes on each stakeholder, such as
personal information, likes and dislikes, and anything else—positive and
negative—that might help build strong engagement with them.”
—Jason Orloske, PMP, chief of staff, Dakota Medical Foundation, Fargo,
North Dakota, USA
STUDY SCOPE

“If you haven't received an in-depth debriefing on the project, read the scope
document for the project. It likely will either explicitly list stakeholders or help
you deduce who the main stakeholders will be, such as types of end users
with an IT project. If someone else wrote the scope document, talk with that
person to ensure you're on the same page in terms of which stakeholders are
most critical. As humans, we are prone to make assumptions for sake of
efficiency, so you need an intentional mindset and process to reliably identify
stakeholders.”
—Chris Schleich, engineering manager, Enterprise Automation, Irvine,
California, USA

STRUCTURED QUESTIONS

“From my perspective, identifying all the stakeholders feels like a journey of

discovery, following leads and being a detective. Over the years, I've kept
track of the questions that are most helpful in revealing the various aspects of
a project, including stakeholders. While these questions and the overall
process can vary with every project, I always make sure to seek out people in
the organization's enabling areas to ensure I've captured all the right
stakeholders. These areas can vary, but they typically include purchasing (can
reveal suppliers), legal (can reveal regulators or compliance entities), audit,
IT, marketing, governance and human resources. The biggest challenge that
disrupts any process is a lack of adequate time. But in the face of urgency,
you have to remind yourself at all times that successful stakeholder analysis is
crucial to establishing solid relationships, trust and buy-in.”
—Jan Schiller, PMP, partner and chief project officer, Berkshire Consulting
LLC, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

MATRIX MONITOR

“I use the enterprise architecture as a guide to identifying and creating a

stakeholder registry. I create a matrix to classify and prioritize each
stakeholder's influence and impact on the project. Influence is defined by how
much each stakeholder might modify the decisions of any other involved in the
process. No matter what type of array is used, I try to classify them in these
categories:
■ Keep satisfied: Pay attention to their requirements but don't bore them with
constant communication.
■ Manage closely: Involve these key stakeholders throughout the process of
creating a solution.
■ Monitor: Have them always in mind because they can change classification
through the process of creating a solution.
■ Keep informed: Share information with them and record their needs in order
to reduce stakeholder anxiety.”
—Sergio Luis Conte, PhD, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, PMP, project and program
management senior supervisor, project management office global trade
services, PepsiCo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

DIVE INTO DOCUMENTATION

“Always start with documentation to identify key stakeholders. For me, the two
major sources are the business case and the benefits management plan. But
the communications management plan is a source of knowledge about the
project's stakeholders, because it indicates a hierarchy for stakeholders that
you can help use to prioritize engagement. The stakeholder registers from
similar previous projects and the organization's lessons learned repository
definitely help identify and prioritize stakeholders. Finally, consider the social,
technical, economic and political context and consequences of a project to
help reveal any stakeholders you might have overlooked.”
—Afshin Montazami, engineering director consultant, Energy Industries
Engineering and Design, Tehran, Iran

USE GOVERNANCE FORUMS

“We utilize governance forums with representatives from across our enterprise
prior to final chartering. This allows for the validation of and/or the
identification of additional stakeholders. The secondary benefit of this process
is that the organization as a whole learns who it needs to include in the
future.”
—Heather Vickers, senior continuous process improvement analyst, Defense
Logistics Agency, Arlington, Virginia, USA
Expanding Engagement
As the range of stakeholders in the business world widens, organizations—
and project teams—must ensure strong engagement at all levels.
Does your organization seek out the views of wider stakeholders*?

*Includes employees, suppliers, community and investors

Top three methods used to seek stakeholder feedback:

Source: Corporate Governance Report, Grant Thornton, 2018

This material has been reproduced with the permission of the copyright owner. Unauthorized
reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited. For permission to reproduce this material,
please contact PMI.

Activity: Complete a stakeholder analysis and power grid

PUNTOS TOTALES DE 1

1.

Pregunta 1

To pass this practice quiz, you must receive 100%, or 1 out of 1 point, by completing the activity
below. You can learn more about the graded and practice items in the Course Overview.
Activity Overview
In this activity you will complete a stakeholder analysis and power grid.

As a project manager, it’s important to understand how each stakeholder relates to your project.
Completing a stakeholder analysis and power grid allows you to determine each stakeholder’s
influence and potential impact on a project, which is crucial to managing communications and
expectations.

Be sure to complete this activity before moving on. The next course item will provide you with a
completed exemplar to compare to your own work. You will not be able to access the exemplar until
you have completed this activity.

Scenario

Review the scenario below. Then complete the step-by-step instructions.

You are the project manager at Office Green, a commercial landscaping company that specializes in
plant decor for offices and other businesses. The company is getting ready to introduce its new Plant
Pals service, and you will manage the launch. You and your team need to maintain trust and
generate buy-in from your stakeholders. Your stakeholders include:

 Director of Product: The Director of Product is the project sponsor. As the sponsor, they
fully support the project, sign off on high-level decisions, and sometimes act as a resource
for the team. They are deeply invested in the outcome of the project, but less involved with
its day-to-day operations.

 Landscape Designer/Website Designer: This person has two roles at Office Green, and
within the Plant Pals project. In addition to their web design skills and knowledge of plants,
they have strong relationships with a range of people across the company. The Plant Pals
project could affect their role as Landscape Designer if it results in a pivot toward new
services. If they don’t want their role to change, it could be harder to get their buy-in.

 Existing clients and their employees: The core customers for this product launch are
Office Green’s existing clients and their employees. Their feedback can help Office Green
improve the customer experience for the new service. Depending on their needs, some
clients will be very interested in Plant Pals, while others will be less so. Lower-interest clients
are unlikely to resist the project unless it impacts the existing product line.

 Office Green’s investors: The investors support Office Green financially, so the company
wants to keep them happy. Likewise, because Office Green’s performance affects their
investments, the investors want Plant Pals to succeed. However, they will not be directly
 involved in the project and it will not affect them before launch. They are therefore unlikely
to oppose the project at this stage.

 Office Green’s receptionist: The receptionist will not be directly involved with the Plant
Pals project. They may need to answer customer questions about the service later on, but
don’t need to know many details until closer to launch. They have no major concerns about
the project at this stage.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Part 1 - Understanding stakeholders with a stakeholder analysis

Step 1: Access the template

To use the template for this course item, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Link to template: Stakeholder analysis and power grid

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the template directly from the attachment
below.

Activity Template_ Stakeholder analysis and power grid.pptx

Step 2: Identify stakeholders

Start with the Understanding Stakeholders table on the first slide of the template. This is where
you will organize your information. First, identify the stakeholders from the Office Green scenario
(e.g., Director of Product, Landscape Designer, etc.) and write their titles in the Stakeholder column
of the table. 

Step 3: Determine stakeholder roles

What roles do your stakeholders play in the project? Write down each team member’s role in the
Role column. Select from the following options when determining project roles:

 Project sponsor

 Project team member

 Office Green employee

 Office Green customer 

 Secondary stakeholder

Step 4: Determine stakeholder involvement 

How will each stakeholder participate in the project? What resources do they have that can help
project success? Consider each stakeholder’s involvement in the project, as well as any tools
(software, hardware, etc.), knowledge, or relationships that could be helpful. Make note of these
activities and assets in the Involvement column.

Step 5: Determine the impact on your stakeholders

How will the project outcomes affect the needs of each stakeholder? Do you expect any resistance
that could affect their buy-in? Record this information in the Impact column. 

Step 6: Determine each stakeholder’s level of power or influence

How much influence does each stakeholder have over the project? Consider the information you
added to the Involvement and Impact columns. Then record each stakeholder’s level of power or
influence as high (H), medium (M), or low (L) in the Power or Influence column. 

Note: You should gauge each stakeholder’s level of influence on this project, not within Office Green
in general.

Step 7: Determine each stakeholder’s level of interest

How involved is each stakeholder in the project on a daily basis? How much will the project impact
the needs of each stakeholder? Estimate each stakeholder’s level of interest in the project at this
stage, considering your notes from the Involvement and Impact columns. Then indicate high (H),
medium (M), or low (L) in the Interest column. 

Note: Be sure to consider interest in project outcomes and interest in day-to-day operations. If a
stakeholder is interested in both, their overall interest level is likely high. If neither, their interest
could be low. If they are interested in one, but not the other, a medium rating might be appropriate.
Leave the Engagement column blank for now. You will return to it once you have completed the
power grid.

Part 2 - Prioritizing stakeholders in a power grid

Step 1: Place stakeholders in the power grid

Now go to the second slide of the template: the Prioritizing Stakeholders (power grid). Consider
your power or influence ratings from the stakeholder analysis. Then drag the box containing each
stakeholder’s name to the appropriate place in the power grid.

High-interest, high-power stakeholders should go toward the upper-right corner. Low-interest, low-
power stakeholders go toward the lower-left corner, and so forth. You can place stakeholders
anywhere on the power grid—even between quadrants. For example, a stakeholder with a medium
level of interest would straddle the high and low interest quadrants. 

Note: Consult slides 3-5 for a demonstration of how to place your stakeholders.

Step 2: Determine how to engage with stakeholders

Now that you’ve placed your stakeholders in the grid, go back to the Engagement column in the
stakeholder analysis table. Think about where each stakeholder falls in the grid: monitor, show
consideration, keep satisfied, or manage closely. 

Based on this information, determine how often you should communicate with each stakeholder and
what form that communication should take (e.g. semi-regular consultations, frequent updates, etc.).
Depending on their role or resources, you might communicate with them daily, regularly, or rarely.
Record your answers in the Engagement column.

Pro Tip: Save the Template

Finally, be sure to save a blank copy of the stakeholder analysis and power grid template you used
to complete this activity. You can use it for further practice or in your own personal or professional
projects. Templates like this one will be useful as you put together a portfolio of project management
artifacts. You can use them to talk through your thought processes as you demonstrate your
experience to potential employers.

What to Include in Your Response

Be sure to address the following criteria in your completed stakeholder analysis table:

 The table includes all five stakeholders and groups from the scenario.

 The table lists information on each stakeholder’s role, resources, potential resistance, and
engagement.

 The table lists each stakeholder’s level of power or influence as low, medium, or high.

 The table lists each stakeholder’s level of interest as low, medium, or high.

Be sure to address the following criteria in your completed power grid:

 The grid contains all the stakeholders from your stakeholder analysis. 

 The position of each stakeholder corresponds to their level of interest and influence in your
stakeholder analysis.

Did you complete this activity?

1 punto

Yes

No

Activity Exemplar: Complete a stakeholder

analysis and power grid

Here is a completed exemplar along with an explanation of how the exemplar fulfills the expectations
for the activity.
Completed Exemplar
Click the link to create a copy of the exemplar. If you don’t have a Google account, download the
exemplar directly from the attachment below.

Link to exemplar: Stakeholder analysis and power grid

OR

Download the exemplar:

Activity Exemplar_ Stakeholder analysis and power grid.pptx

Assessment of Exemplar

Compare the exemplar to your completed stakeholder analysis and power grid. Review your work
using each of the criteria in the exemplar. What did you do well? Where can you improve? Use your
answers to these questions to guide you as you continue to progress through the course. 

Note: Some of the information in your stakeholder analysis and power grid may differ from these
exemplars. Some variation is to be expected. 

Let’s review the stakeholder analysis table:

 The Stakeholder column includes the titles of the five stakeholders (and stakeholder
groups) from the scenario. 

 Each stakeholder’s role is in the Role column.

 Each stakeholder’s involvement (including helpful tools, knowledge, or relationships) is

recorded in the Involvement column.

 The project’s impact on each stakeholder’s needs (along with any potential resistance )
is described in the Impact column. 

 Each stakeholder’s level of power or influence is classified as high (H), medium (M), or
low (L) in the Power or Influence column.
  Each stakeholder’s level of interest is classified as high (H), medium (M), or low (L) in the
Interest column.

 The level and type of engagement determined for each stakeholder is recorded in the
Engagement column.

Let’s review the power grid:

The exemplar assesses each stakeholder according to their level of influence and interest:

 As the project sponsor, the Director of Product has a high level of influence on the
project. They are invested in the project’s success, but not involved on a day-to-day
basis, so their interest is medium. You should communicate with them regularly, but not
daily, to ensure they are satisfied with project progress.

 The Landscape and Website Designer has a high level of both influence and interest,
which means you should manage them closely. You should communicate with them
daily to discuss project tasks and to ensure you have their buy-in. If you have them on
your side, they can help you manage relationships with other Office Green employees.

 Existing clients and their employees are the core customer base for Plant Pals, so you
need to make sure you’re building something they want to buy. Their feedback can help
you measure project success, but you don’t need to communicate with them frequently.
Occasional check-ins to gauge their satisfaction are appropriate. This is a large group of
people with varying priorities and concerns, so their interest and influence are both
marked as medium. 

 Office Green’s investors will not be directly involved in the project, so their interest in
daily operations is low. However, their influence level is medium, since you need to
protect their investment to keep their financial support. Giving them periodic updates
on project milestones and performance would be appropriate.

 The Office Green receptionist’s influence and interest in the project are both relatively
low. You don’t need to communicate with them often until the project nears
completion. They are not part of the project team, and you do not need to discuss the
details with them until later in the process. 

Elements of a RACI chart

In the last video, we saw how a stakeholder analysis shows us how to best work with stakeholders and
when to communicate with all the different people involved in the project. In this video, we're going to
check out another handy tool called a RACI chart. A RACI chart helps to define roles and responsibilities
for individuals or teams to ensure work gets done efficiently. It creates clear roles and gives direction for
each team member. There are four types of participation included in a RACI chart. These are:
responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. Let's take a look at each. Responsible refers to those
doing the work to complete the task. Accountable refers to those making sure the work gets done.
Consulted includes those giving feedback, like subject matter experts or decision-makers. And lastly, we
have informed, which includes those just needing to know the final decisions or that a task is complete.
Here's an image of how this breaks down in a chart form. When creating your RACI chart, you need to
write down each task or deliverable for your project, and then assign it the appropriate role for each
stakeholder. To do this, first think about who's involved in the project. Write the roles or people's names
in a row across the top of your chart. Pro-tip: use roles rather than names if some people might take on
more than one role. Next, write down the tasks or deliverables in a column on the left. Try not to get too
specific here. You want the chart to be simple and easy to read. After that, go through each task and
deliverable and ask: Who's responsible for doing this? Who's accountable if it doesn't get done? Who
will have strong opinions to add, and therefore, should be consulted about how this gets done? And
who needs to be informed of the progress or decisions made about this? Assign the letters R, A, C, and I
based on your answers. For example, as a project manager on Office Green's new service launch, one of
your tasks is to create different price points for different packages and delivery frequencies. The Head of
Finance will be accountable because the project needs to stay in budget and make money, but it's the
Financial Analyst who's responsible, as they're the person doing the work in determining optimal pricing.
The Director of Product will be consulted on the matter as they oversee the product offerings. And
finally, team members, like those on the sales team, need to be informed of the final pricing. It's
possible there are several roles that fall into the "informed" and "consulted" categories. One thing that
will always remain constant is there will never be more than one person designated as "accountable."
This prevents confusion, because having one person accountable clearly defines ownership. However,
the same person that is "accountable" may also be "responsible." There are several other factors that
can cause role confusion. For example, there might be unbalanced workloads, which means some
people might be doing more work or less work than others on the team. Or there could be an unclear
hierarchy when people aren't sure who to seek help from if a task doesn't get done or unclear
ownership of decisions where people aren't sure who makes the final call on a project. Another issue
could be overlapping work. This is when teams or individuals feel that they're responsible for the same
work. When this happens, things can get confusing fast. And the same goes for excessive
communication. While communication is usually a good thing, too much communication can actually
make things more complicated. It can cause information overload where people don't know what to pay
attention to, and so they miss something important. Wow, there's a lot of things that might cause
confusion, but all these issues can be resolved or even prevented with a RACI analysis. Be proactive and
do this work upfront, and you'll help ensure the success of your project.

Elements of a RACI chart

In the last video, we saw how a stakeholder analysis shows us how to best work with stakeholders and
when to communicate with all the different people involved in the project. In this video, we're going to
check out another handy tool called a RACI chart. A RACI chart helps to define roles and responsibilities
for individuals or teams to ensure work gets done efficiently. It creates clear roles and gives direction for
each team member. There are four types of participation included in a RACI chart. These are:
responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. Let's take a look at each. Responsible refers to those
doing the work to complete the task. Accountable refers to those making sure the work gets done.
Consulted includes those giving feedback, like subject matter experts or decision-makers. And lastly, we
have informed, which includes those just needing to know the final decisions or that a task is complete.
Here's an image of how this breaks down in a chart form. When creating your RACI chart, you need to
write down each task or deliverable for your project, and then assign it the appropriate role for each
stakeholder. To do this, first think about who's involved in the project. Write the roles or people's names
in a row across the top of your chart. Pro-tip: use roles rather than names if some people might take on
more than one role. Next, write down the tasks or deliverables in a column on the left. Try not to get too
specific here. You want the chart to be simple and easy to read. After that, go through each task and
deliverable and ask: Who's responsible for doing this? Who's accountable if it doesn't get done? Who
will have strong opinions to add, and therefore, should be consulted about how this gets done? And
who needs to be informed of the progress or decisions made about this? Assign the letters R, A, C, and I
based on your answers. For example, as a project manager on Office Green's new service launch, one of
your tasks is to create different price points for different packages and delivery frequencies. The Head of
Finance will be accountable because the project needs to stay in budget and make money, but it's the
Financial Analyst who's responsible, as they're the person doing the work in determining optimal pricing.
The Director of Product will be consulted on the matter as they oversee the product offerings. And
finally, team members, like those on the sales team, need to be informed of the final pricing. It's
possible there are several roles that fall into the "informed" and "consulted" categories. One thing that
will always remain constant is there will never be more than one person designated as "accountable."
This prevents confusion, because having one person accountable clearly defines ownership. However,
the same person that is "accountable" may also be "responsible." There are several other factors that
can cause role confusion. For example, there might be unbalanced workloads, which means some
people might be doing more work or less work than others on the team. Or there could be an unclear
hierarchy when people aren't sure who to seek help from if a task doesn't get done or unclear
ownership of decisions where people aren't sure who makes the final call on a project. Another issue
could be overlapping work. This is when teams or individuals feel that they're responsible for the same
work. When this happens, things can get confusing fast. And the same goes for excessive
communication. While communication is usually a good thing, too much communication can actually
make things more complicated. It can cause information overload where people don't know what to pay
attention to, and so they miss something important. Wow, there's a lot of things that might cause
confusion, but all these issues can be resolved or even prevented with a RACI analysis. Be proactive and
do this work upfront, and you'll help ensure the success of your project.

Building out a RACI chart

A RACI chart can be an extremely effective way to define project roles, give direction to each team
member and stakeholder, and ensure work gets done efficiently. Having a RACI chart available
throughout the duration of your project as a quick visual can be invaluable. In this reading, we will
cover the function of a RACI chart and its components and explore how project managers use RACI
charts to define and document project roles and responsibilities. 

Elements of a RACI chart

A RACI chart creates clear roles and gives direction to each team member and stakeholder. Over
your career, you may hear a RACI chart referred to as a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM),
RACI diagram, or RACI matrix. The ultimate goal of this chart is to clarify each person’s role on your
project. 

First, let’s break down each of the roles people can be assigned:

R: Responsible: who gets the work done

A: Accountable: who makes sure the work is done

C: Consulted: who gives input or feedback on work

I: Informed: who needs to know the outcome

Note that RACI charts can be organized in different ways,  depending on personal
preference, number of tasks being assigned, and number of people involved. In the previous video,
we showed you one RACI chart format. The template below shows another way a typical RACI chart
might be organized.
Let’s further examine each of the roles and how to determine which team member should be
assigned to which role.

Responsible
Individuals who are assigned the “responsible” role for a task are the ones who are actually doing
the work to complete the task. Every task needs at least one responsible party. It’s a best practice to
try to limit the number of team members assigned to a task’s  responsible role, but in some cases,
you may have more than one. 

A couple of questions to ask yourself when determining which person or people should be placed in
the responsible role for a given task are:

 What department does the work fall under?

 Who will perform the work?

It is helpful to evaluate the people on your team to determine the role that suits them. Remember
that you may need to list roles rather than names, if some people take on more than one role. 

Let’s dig deeper into our example with Office Green. Our task is to develop price points for the
project, and the Financial Analyst will complete the work for this task. Therefore, we will list
“Financial Analyst” in the responsible role for this task in the RACI chart.

Accountable
The “accountable” person is responsible for making sure the task gets done. It is important to have
only one individual accountable for each task. This helps clarify ownership of the task. The
accountable person ultimately has the authority to approve the deliverable of the responsible party. 

In order to determine who should be tagged as the accountable team member, consider:

 Who will delegate the task to be completed?

 Who will review the work to determine if the task is complete?

You may encounter a situation where the responsible party is also accountable, but where possible,
it is helpful to separate these roles. Ensuring that accountability is not shared ensures that there is
no confusion on who the ownership belongs to.

Continuing with our Office Green example, you have assigned the “accountable” role to the Head of
Finance. The Head of Finance has to make sure the project stays in budget and makes a profit, so
they have the ultimate authority over the price points for the product. Therefore, they will need to
approve the Financial Analyst’s work on the task. 

Consulted
Team members or stakeholders who are placed in the “consulted” role have useful information to
help complete the task. There is no maximum or minimum number of people who can be assigned a
“consulted” role, but it’s important that each person has a reason for being there.

Here are a few ways you can help identify who is appropriate for the role:

 Who will the task impact?

 Who will have input or feedback for the responsible person to help the work be
completed?

 Who are the subject matter experts (SMEs) for the task?

The consulted people will be in frequent, two-way communication with the responsible party, so it is
key to make sure that the right people are in this role to help accomplish the task efficiently and
correctly.

Back to the project at Office Green, we’ve got a “responsible” Financial Analyst and an “accountable”
Head of Finance. Who else would need to provide input on the product’s price points? Whose
decisions and feedback will directly affect the task? The Director of Product will need to be consulted
on the matter, as they oversee all product offerings. This person will have information about potential
changes to the product and how these changes might affect price points.
Informed
Individuals who are identified as needing to be “informed” need to know the final decisions that were
made and when a task is completed. It is common to have many people assigned to this category
and for some team members to be informed on most tasks. Team members or stakeholders here will
not be asked for feedback, so it is key to make sure people who are in this group only require status
updates and do not need to provide any direct feedback for the completion of the effort. 

Key questions to ask yourself in order to ensure that you have appropriately captured individuals in
the “informed” role are:

 Who cares about this task’s completion?

 Who will be affected by the outcome?

Now that you’ve determined who is responsible, accountable, and consulted on the Office Green
project task, it is time to determine who needs to be informed about the task. Your Financial Analyst
has set the price points with input from the Director of Product, and the Head of Finance has
approved. You will now need to inform the Sales Team about the final price points, as they will need
this information to sell the product. 

Pro tip: You could end up with a large number of team members and stakeholders who are placed
in the “informed” role. If so, make sure that you have a plan to keep them informed that is not labor-
intensive. Something as easy as view-only access to your project plan or meeting notes could
prevent you from having to create separate communications along the way.  
Key takeaway
The RACI chart is a valuable tool. It can help you define and document project roles and
responsibilities, give direction to each team member and stakeholder, and ensure work gets done
efficiently. A RACI chart can also help you analyze and balance the workload of your team. While it
may take many revisions to make sure that your team members and stakeholders are being placed
into the right roles in your RACI chart, doing this work up front helps save time and prevent
miscommunications later on. 

Activity: Set project roles and responsibilities in a RACI chart

PUNTOS TOTALES DE 1

1.

Pregunta 1

To pass this practice quiz, you must receive 100%, or 1 out of 1 point, by completing the activity
below. You can learn more about the graded and practice items in the Course Overview.

Activity Overview
In this activity, you will use a RACI chart to assign roles and responsibilities to project stakeholders.
You will analyze a scenario and determine each stakeholder’s relationship to project tasks and
deliverables.

As a reminder, RACI charts help you determine who is:

 Responsible

 Accountable

 Consulted

 Informed

Be sure to complete this activity before moving on. The next course item will provide you with a
completed exemplar to compare to your own work. You will not be able to access the exemplar until
you have completed this activity.

Scenario
Review the scenario below. Then complete the step-by-step instructions.

As the project manager for Plant Pals, you must assemble a team that can develop and execute the
marketing and sales strategy to prepare for the launch. You must also assign roles and
responsibilities for each of the project tasks and identify stakeholders impacted by the project.
You’ve determined that the following roles will be involved:

 Director of Product: Oversees the product offerings, and serves as a resource for marketing
and sales questions. Their knowledge of customer needs is vital to the project. 

 Marketing Manager: Makes key decisions about the service launch and monitors task
completion. They oversee all marketing efforts, including concept development, and sign
off on the service launch plan. 

 Marketing Assistant: Creates the marketing strategy, including all marketing assets. They
work closely with the Copywriter and report to the Marketing Manager. 

 Copywriter: Produces all Plant Pals ad content, writes product descriptions, and creates
promotional copy. They coordinate with the Marketing Assistant on all aspects of the
marketing strategy and report to the Marketing Manager.

 Head of Sales: Oversees the Assistant Sales Manager and ensures the sales team is well-
trained to provide a quality customer experience. Their knowledge of customers’ buying
behaviors can help the marketing team develop their campaign.

 Assistant Sales Manager: Conducts training for sales team members. The Assistant Sales
Manager needs to understand the final marketing strategy and product offerings, and
convey that information to the sales team. The team communicates directly with customers,
so they must be prepared to answer their questions. The Assistant Sales Manager reports to
the Head of Sales.

To develop and execute the marketing strategy, your team must complete the following tasks:

1. Create a marketing plan for the new service

2. Write promotional copy 

3. Design marketing assets (e.g., flyers, brochures, and online advertisements)

4. Train the sales team for the new service

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1: Access the template

To use the template for this course item, click the link below and select “Use Template.”
Link to template: RACI Chart

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the template directly from the attachment
below.

Activity Template_ RACI chart - Phase 1.xlsx

Step 2: Add tasks to the RACI chart

Add the four tasks from the scenario to your RACI chart template under Task/Deliverable (column
A, rows 9-12). Replace “Deliverable/Task” with the name of each task.

Step 3: Add team members to the RACI chart

Add your team members to row 6 of the template. Replace “Person A” with “Director of Product,” and
so on. 

Step 4: Assign letters in the RACI chart

For each task, assign the letters R, A, C, and I to the team members involved. Consult the
descriptions below to determine how your team members relate to the tasks:

Responsible: Who is responsible for completing this task? Consider these questions when
determining who is responsible:

 Which department manages the work?

 Who should perform the work?

Accountable: Who is accountable if the task isn’t completed? When deciding who is accountable,
ask yourself: 

 Who might delegate the task to another team member?

 Who makes final decisions about the task?

 Who should review the work to confirm it is complete?

  Note: Only one person should be accountable for each task or deliverable.

Consulted: Who should be consulted for their insights, expertise, or strong opinions on the task?
Here are a few questions to help identify whether someone should be consulted:

 Who can give feedback to responsible individuals to help them complete tasks? 

 Who are the subject matter experts (SMEs) for the task?

Informed: Who should be kept informed about task progress or project decisions? Key questions to
ask yourself include: 

 Who is invested in task completion but not directly involved in the work? 

 Who is affected by the project outcome?

Note: The number of stakeholders you keep informed about each task can vary depending on your
situation. In some cases, you might choose to inform all stakeholders who aren't responsible,
accountable, or consulted. In others, you could leave some cells in your RACI chart blank for certain
tasks. Both approaches are fine for this activity.

Pro Tip: Save the template

Finally, be sure to save a blank copy of the RACI chart template you used to complete this activity.
You can use it for further practice or in your own personal or professional projects. These templates
will be useful as you put together a portfolio of project management artifacts. You can use them to
work through your thought processes as you demonstrate your experience to potential employers.

What to Include in Your Response

Be sure to address the following elements in your completed RACI chart:

 The RACI chart includes all of the project roles from the scenario.

 The RACI chart includes all the deliverables/tasks from the scenario. 

 The appropriate individuals are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.

 Only one individual is accountable for each deliverable/task.

At least one individual is responsible and accountable for each task. (Note: Some tasks may not
need Consulted or Informed individuals.)
Assessment of Exemplar

Compare the exemplar to your completed RACI chart. Review your work using each of the criteria in
the exemplar. What did you do well? Where can you improve? Use your answers to these questions
to guide you as you continue to progress through the course. 

Note: Your answers may vary (particularly for Consulted and Informed individuals), depending how
you interpreted each stakeholder’s responsibilities.

In the exemplar for the Plant Pals service, each role has a RACI designation for each task or
deliverable. Let’s review each of the tasks:

Create a marketing plan for the new service.

 The Marketing Assistant reports to the Marketing Manager and is responsible for
creating the marketing plan.

 The Marketing Manager is accountable for marketing efforts, including the marketing
concept. They have the final say in launching and advertising the Plant Pals service. 

 The Copywriter writes and edits the promotional copy, therefore they are consulted on
the marketing plan.

 The Director of Product and Head of Sales are consulted on marketing campaigns since
they understand customer needs and buying behaviors. 

 The Assistant Sales Manager can be kept informed of marketing efforts since their team
will have to answer questions about the service. 

Write promotional copy.

 The Copywriter is responsible for drafting and editing promotional copy.

 The Marketing Manager is accountable for the Copywriter’s work. 

 The Marketing Assistant is consulted on the promotional and sales copy as they create
the marketing plan. 

 All other members of the team can be kept informed about the status of the
promotional copy. 

Design marketing assets.

 The Marketing Manager delegates tasks to the Marketing Assistant, who is responsible
for producing assets.
  The Marketing Manager is accountable for marketing efforts because they make the
final decisions.

 The Copywriter is consulted by the Marketing Assistant about the marketing assets. 

 All other team members can be kept informed about marketing design matters.

Train the sales team for the new service.

 The Assistant Sales Manager is responsible for training sales team members. 

 When it comes to training employees in preparation for the product launch, the Head of
Sales is accountable for the training of the sales team.

 The Director of Product is consulted on questions about customer needs, while the
Marketing Manager is consulted about the marketing plan.

 All other team members can be kept informed about the new service.

Certificate completers: Staying motivated in the program

[MUSIC] If something is stumping you or you feel stuck at a certain aspect, there's always someone else
who's going through the same thing.

Anytime I started to feel overwhelmed by information or like I just wasn't getting it. I wasted so much
time being unsure of myself that I should have just listened to my friends and family when they said just
do it, you can do it.

One of the greatest things that help me to get back motivated is the accessibility of the course on my
phone. I was just able to go into the app and listen to a few videos, because I can learn a lot on the go.

Having a network of people that motivates you—it's so fundamental. Even if it's a friend or if it's a family
member that you can get from the beginning, and he can be there for you on your corner like a coach.

And don't be afraid to ask for help, whether it be from your peers, from your coaches, friends, family.
There's always someone who knows more, and you can learn from them. [MUSIC]

Getting the most out of a RACI chart

In the previous video, you learned how critical a RACI chart is for creating clear roles and giving
direction to each team member on a project. In this reading, we will further explore the function and
components of RACI charts and how to use them to communicate responsibilities to project teams. 

Definition and structure

Determining who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed on your projects allows you
to keep control of the stakeholders roles on your project. 

Workload balance 
Are there too many tasks assigned to one stakeholder? When you complete your chart, it is a good
idea to go back through and tally the number of Rs assigned to each stakeholder. This can help you
identify potentially overloading one team member with work. Using a RACI chart to determine
responsibility for tasks can help mitigate single points of failure (known as creating silos, where the
knowledge and responsibility for a task falls on one person) and allow you, as the project manager,
to delegate tasks and avoid burnout. Maintaining workload balance is a critical part of project
management. It is easy to fall into the pattern of relying on your top performers to keep the project
moving forward. But this isn’t always healthy for the project or your team. If you find that you don’t
have the right people to assign responsibilities to, take a step back and evaluate your team. 
Put your RACI into practice
Once you have created your RACI chart, it is time to put it into practice. You will first need to share
your RACI chart with your sponsors and stakeholders to get buy-in and sign-off. When you get
stakeholder buy-in, you will be able to set clear expectations for your team and ensure that everyone
is aligned on their responsibilities. 

You can document your team and stakeholders’ acknowledgment of these expectations through the
project charter, meeting notes, and in the RACI chart itself. Think back to a time when you were
expected to do something you did not agree with, or weren’t clear on. That disagreement or lack of
clarity made it difficult to do your best work, right? Getting buy-in and continually checking in with
your stakeholders and your team is the way to avoid this potential pitfall! 

As you take the time to ensure that each task has an owner identified with the appropriate level of
engagement, you are streamlining your communication and decision-making process over the life
cycle of your project. 

When should you use a RACI chart?

If you are wondering if you should use a RACI chart on your project, it is a good idea to evaluate the
complexity of the effort. For example, if you have a very small project team with a small amount of
stakeholders, clearly defined roles, and a short timeline, introducing a RACI chart could possibly
slow down the project. However, larger projects, or even projects that involve a large number of
stakeholders, could greatly benefit from a RACI chart. It is always a good idea to work through the
creation of a RACI chart and evaluate the outcome. Even if you do not end up using the RACI chart,
you will have a better understanding of the project, and your effort will contribute to your project
management experience overall.

Activity: Assign project roles and responsibilities in a RACI chart

PUNTOS TOTALES DE 5

1.

Pregunta 1

To pass this practice quiz, you must receive at least 80%, or 4 out of 5 points, by completing the
activity and answering corresponding quiz questions. You can learn more about the graded and
practice items in the Course Overview.
Activity Overview
In this activity, you will apply your knowledge of RACI charts to a new phase of project planning. You
will analyze a scenario about the execution phase of the Plant Pals project. Then you will use a
RACI chart to determine each stakeholder’s relationship to project tasks.

As a reminder, RACI charts help you determine who is:

 Responsible

 Accountable

 Consulted

 Informed

Be sure to complete this activity before moving on. The next course item will provide you with a
completed exemplar to compare to your own work. You will not be able to access the exemplar until
you have completed this activity.

Scenario

Review the scenario below. Then complete the step-by-step instructions.

As the lead project manager for the Plant Pals project, you’re managing the launch of this new
service. Previously,  you worked with your project team as they developed a marketing plan, wrote
promotional copy, designed marketing assets, and trained the sales team.

Now you are gathering a new team to design and develop the Plant Pals landing page. When
potential customers click on Plant Pals advertisements, the landing page is the first part of the Office
Green website they will see. The team members you need to build the landing page include:

 Web Manager: The Web Manager makes final decisions about new site features and content
changes. They sign off on the landing page design and launch plans. They also coordinate
maintenance and management tasks to keep the page operating smoothly. 

 Graphic Designer: The Graphic Designer creates and chooses images and typefaces for the
landing page and submits them to the Web Designer for approval. They also provide
feedback on the landing page design and mockup. 

 Programmer: The Programmer supports the product team by writing the code that powers
the landing page. They give feedback to the Web Designer on the landing page mockup.
The Programmer also helps set quality standards for the project.
  Quality Assurance Tester: The Quality Assurance Tester reviews system specifications and
runs quality tests for the new landing page. They run test scripts and review results, create
reports, and document technical issues. These tests identify problems that the team can
then resolve before launch. 

 Copywriter: The Copywriter creates the written content that explains how Plant Pals works
and helps potential customers sign up for the service. They give feedback to the Web
Designer on the landing page mockup. 

 Web Designer: The Web Designer determines how the page looks and how customers
interact with it. The Web Designer connects the creative and technical elements of the
project, ensuring that the landing page is both attractive and functional. They report to the
Web Manager, who makes final decisions on new site features.

To build and launch a landing page for Plant Pals, the team needs to accomplish the following tasks:

1. Design a landing page 

2. Create a landing page mockup

3. Design image assets

4. Write copy

5. Code the landing page

6. Test the landing page

Step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Access the template

To use the template for this course item, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Link to template: RACI Chart

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the exemplar directly from the attachment
below.

Activity Template_ RACI Chart - Phase 2.xlsx

Step 2: Add tasks to the RACI chart

Add the six tasks from the scenario to your RACI chart template under the Task/Deliverable
heading. Add each task to a separate row (do not add multiple tasks to the same row).

Step 3: Assign roles to the RACI chart

Update the Role headers with each team member role from the scenario. Replace “Role A” with
“Web Manager,” and so on.

Step 4: Assign letters in the RACI chart

Go through each task and assign the letters R, A, C, and I to the team member roles involved in
each task. Keep in mind the the description of each role:

(R) Responsible: Who is responsible for performing this task? Consider these questions when
determining who is responsible:

 Which department manages the work?

 Who should perform the work?

(A) Accountable: Who is accountable if the task isn’t completed? When deciding who is
accountable, ask yourself:

 Who might delegate the task to another team member?

 Who should review the work to confirm it is complete?

Note: Only one person should be accountable for each task or deliverable.

(C) Consulted: Who should be consulted for their insights, expertise, or strong opinions on the
project? Here are a few questions to help identify whether someone should be consulted:

 Who can give feedback to responsible individuals to help them complete tasks?

 Who are the subject matter experts (SMEs) for the task?

(I) Informed: Who must be kept informed about progress or decisions made about certain tasks?
Key questions to ask yourself to ensure you’ve appropriately identified informed team members:

 Who is invested in task completion, but not directly involved in the work?

 Who is affected by the outcome?

Note: The number of stakeholders you keep informed about each task can vary depending on your
situation. In some cases, you might choose to inform all stakeholders who aren't responsible,
accountable, or consulted. In others, you could leave some cells in your RACI chart blank for certain
tasks. Both approaches are fine for this activity.

Pro Tip: Save the Template

Finally, be sure to save a blank copy of the RACI chart template you used to complete this activity.
You can use it for further practice or in your own personal or professional projects. Templates like
this one will be useful as you put together a portfolio of project management artifacts. You can use
them to talk through your thought processes as you demonstrate your experience to potential
employers.

What to Include in Your Response

Be sure to address the following elements in your completed RACI chart: 

 The RACI chart includes all of the project roles.

 The RACI chart includes all the tasks. 

 The appropriate individuals are listed as Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and

Informed.

 Only one individual is accountable for each deliverable/task.

 At least one individual is responsible for each task. (Note that some tasks may not need
Consulted or Informed individuals.)

Activity Exemplar: Assign project roles and

responsibilities in a RACI chart

Here is a completed exemplar along with an explanation of how the exemplar fulfills the expectations
for the activity. 
Completed Exemplar
To use the template for this course item, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Link to exemplar: RACI chart

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the exemplar directly from the attachment
below.

Activity Exemplar_ RACI chart - Phase 2.xlsx

Assessment of Exemplar

Compare the exemplar to your completed RACI chart. Review your work using each of the criteria in
the exemplar. What did you do well? Where can you improve? Use your answers to these questions
to guide you as you continue to progress through the course. 

Note: Your answers may vary (particularly for Consulted and Informed individuals), depending how
you interpreted each stakeholder’s responsibilities.

Let’s review the six tasks in the RACI chart. The exemplar includes RACI assignments for each task
and role:

Design a landing page 

 The Web Manager has the final say on many aspects of the project. They are
accountable for most tasks, including the initial design of the page. 

 The Web Designer is responsible for designing the landing page, which they submit to
the Web Manager for approval.

 The Graphic Designer is consulted on the landing page design.

  The Programmer, Quality Assurance Tester, and Copywriter can all be kept informed on
the state of the design throughout the process. 

Create landing page mockup

 The Web Designer is responsible for creating the landing page mockup and
incorporating it into the Office Green website.

 The Web Manager signs off on the mockup, making them accountable.

 The Graphic Designer, Programmer, and Copywriter are all consulted on the mockup
because they contribute content and design elements to the landing page. 

 The Quality Assurance tester can be kept informed. 

Design image assets

 The Graphic Designer is responsible for creating the image assets for the landing
page. 

 The Web Designer signs off on the image assets, making them accountable. 

 All other stakeholders can be kept informed.

Write copy

 The Copywriter is responsible for writing the landing page content.

 The Web Manager signs off on the copy, making them accountable.

 All other stakeholders can be kept informed.

Code the landing page

 The Programmer is responsible for writing the code that powers the landing page. 

 The Web Manager makes sure the Programmer produces functional code, making them
accountable.

 All other stakeholders can be kept informed. 

Test the landing page

 The Quality Assurance tester is responsible for running quality tests for the landing
page. 

 The Programmer should be consulted about coding requirements. 

 The Web Manager signs off on the final product, making them accountable.

 All other stakeholders can be kept informed. 

Why projects fail: Initiation missteps

You have been learning the necessary planning steps to take in order to set a project up for
success. But despite your best efforts, projects can still fail. Sometimes the factors that lead to
project failure are out of your control. The technology to complete the project is unavailable, for
example, or a stakeholder decides to drastically change the goals of the project. However, there are
factors that can lead to failure that are more in your control, such as being unable to complete the
project deliverables within the agreed upon time or being unable to fulfill the stakeholder’s vision for
the project.

In this reading, we will explore a few key reasons why projects fail and examine how missteps during
the initiation phase can lead to project failure. 

Unclear expectations 
You may remember the questions you need to answer at the start of the initiation phase of the
project, including: 

 What is the end goal? 

 What are the expected deliverables and schedule? 

 What is the budget? 

 Who are the stakeholders? 

Not taking the time at the beginning of a project to ask essential questions, document decisions, and
understand the true scope of the project may lead to failure. After all, without directions, you can
never reach your destination. 
Unrealistic expectations
We all like to impress our managers, but sometimes, we accidentally agree to unrealistic
expectations and set our projects up for failure from the start. For example, if a project is expected to
take two weeks due to the level of detail and effort required but we try to complete it in one week, we
will not have the resources available to meet the consolidated schedule. This will likely result in
quality issues. It’s important to understand the requirements of a project before agreeing to any
deadlines. As a best practice, don't commit to firm dates when initiating the project to avoid setting
unrealistic expectations. You will have more information and will be able to better manage
expectations in the planning phase.

Miscommunication
Clear communication is key. If information is not communicated in a timely manner, does not include
pertinent information (risks, decisions made, scope changes, etc.), or is not sent to the correct
stakeholders, then you may be setting yourself up for failure. Conducting a stakeholder analysis and
then utilizing a RACI chart to understand which stakeholders should be kept informed or consulted is
a great start to creating an effective communication strategy.

As a project manager, you do not necessarily have to cater to everyone’s unique communication
styles, but you do have to set expectations about how communication will occur. As you are kicking
off a project, make sure you take some time to understand the communication needs of your team
and stakeholders. Some people dislike emails and would prefer to have a phone conversation, some
prefer to have communication in writing, and some prefer face-to-face meetings. A strong
communication system incorporates all of these methods. Set expectations for your communication
approach early so that you, your team members, and your stakeholders have a clear understanding
of how you will all communicate.

Lack of resources
Resources include your team members, budget, and materials. Unfortunately, without proper
planning, your resources can quickly be over-tasked or depleted. Sometimes project managers don’t
account for the fact that team members are juggling multiple tasks and may not be able to devote
the time necessary to complete all of their assigned tasks correctly and on time. Or, project
managers may not realize that a specific skill set is required to complete certain tasks. Ensuring that
the right team members are available at the right time is crucial.

Another common error is to incorrectly calculate your project expenses. For example, imagine you
have a project budget of $10,000. If your project requires $10,000 for materials and you also have to
ship and install those materials, then you will not have enough money to complete your project.
Clarify your resource needs and confirm their availability with leadership up front to avoid delays or
issues further along in the project. 

Scope creep 
The scope provides an overarching framework of what is and is not included in the project’s work
and deliverables. Defining the scope in the initiation phase helps identify the resources needed, the
cost associated with those resources, and the schedule required to complete the work. Sometimes
projects fail because the scope of the project grows and impacts to the scope are not captured. 

For example, imagine that you are given a project that originally includes three deliverables. During
the course of the project, a stakeholder requests that two additional deliverables be included, but no
changes are made to the schedule, budget, or team members to reflect the impact of the increased
number of deliverables. As a project manager, when deliverables change, you have to make sure
that you are capturing the potential impact of those changes to the schedule, budget, and quality.
This is why it is so important to make sure that everything is documented in the initiation phase.
Have a plan for how to handle scope creep if it occurs, and clarify who has the authority to approve
scope changes.

Key takeaway 
Taking the time to clarify expectations—particularly around communication methods, resources
available, and scope—during the initiation phase will increase the chances of your project’s success.
Even if you follow these best practices, you may still encounter failure. Remember that in every
failure, there is the opportunity to learn, grow, and do better the next time.

For additional reading on lessons that can be learned from projects that have failed, check out this
article: Seven Lessons to Learn from a Failed Project

7 Lessons to Learn from a Failed Project

ALYSSA MAGAREY · MARCH 2, 2017 · UPDATED MARCH 6, 2017
Need a simple project management software to manage your team?
Check-out our valuable and unique Top 10 Project Management Software 2021.
The primary goal of any project is that, in the end, it is a success. And while failure is never the desired
outcome, it can offer an opportunity to learn lessons and improve techniques. Here are 7 lessons to
learn from a failed project:

1. Determine What Worked

A project can fail for a variety of reasons, however, this does not mean that every aspect of the project
must be changed. On the contrary, a failed project can also show which aspects did work as planned.
Knowing which areas were a success will allow you determine the difference between those areas and
the parts of the project that did not work so that adjustments can be made next time around.

2. Communication is Vital
Communicating with other team members when working on a project can be vital to its success. A lack
of communication can lead to unwanted delays and an assortment of other problems. It is for this
reason that the value of communication should be emphasized right from the start of any project.

3. Formulate a Strategy
It is no secret that having the proper strategy when taking on a project can be vital to its success.
However, formulating a strategy does not ensure that the project will go off without a hitch. If a project
has failed, analyze the original strategy and decide which steps contributed to the failure, then make the
necessary adjustments.

4. Recognize Weaknesses
One of the most beneficial aspects of having a project fail is the opportunity it allows for you to evaluate
any weaknesses and determine what needs to be done to strengthen those areas. It can be wise to
make a list of the perceived weak spots that showed through during the project and address each of
those issues so that you will be better prepared next time around.
5. Re-Analyze Your Team
Everyone has their own set of talents, as well as areas where they are flawed, and these traits should be
considered when taking on a project. Oftentimes a misappropriation of talent can lead to project failure,
but this can be prevented. When you are creating a team for a project be sure to note the strengths of
each member and apply those where they will benefit the group the most.

6. Keep Costs in Mind

Depending on the scope of the project, the costs incurred could be significant. These costs can make the
success of a project all the more critical, as a failed project will, most likely, mean a complete loss of
funds. If a project has failed, this can help you to better prepare for the financial obstacles that will be
met in future projects.

7. Set Achievable Goals

Setting goals that are unobtainable can cause those involved to become disheartened, which can lead to
a lack of effort. When creating a plan for a project it is best to set goals that are lofty so that there is
something to strive for, but at the same time, it is equally important to recognize if the goals are
unachievable. There is a feeling of confidence that comes with accomplishing a goal and therefore
setting goals that can be achieved can improve morale.

Final Thoughts
As it has been shown, there is a variety of things that can be learned from the failure of a project. A
failed project can show flaws in the strategy, and also in personnel. In addition, lessons can be learned
from the costs that are incurred from an unsuccessful project. If a project has failed, take some of these
lessons into consideration, and the next time that failure could be a success.

Wrap-up
Kudos! You finished another module. That was a fun one! We covered a lot of topics that were likely
new to you. So let's recap. In our first video, we checked out each individual role associated with
projects. You learned that as a project manager, you'll have to ask yourself key questions to make sure
you build a successful team. You have to consider things like team size, necessary skills, availability, and
motivation.

Then you completed a stakeholder analysis. This helps you understand how you might manage
communication with each person on the project. Next came the RACI chart, which defined rules and
responsibilities for individuals or teams. This helps people get work done efficiently, and it creates clear
lanes and instruction for each team member to operate within. It does this by assigning which roles are
responsible, accountable, informed, and consulted. Overall, you learned some really useful concrete
tools to help you stay organized throughout the project. You can use these charts as you work with your
stakeholders. And if your project is ever-evolving, as some are, stakeholder mapping and RACI charting
will help you stay on top of the tasks and communicate effectively. In the next module, you'll learn
about other useful resources for managing projects and discover how to know which tool to use when.
See you soon.

Introduction: Utilizing resources and tools for project

success
Welcome back, and congrats on completing that graded assessment. In the previous module, you
learned all about project roles and responsibilities, and we introduced you to some tools that you can
use to ensure team accountability, like stakeholder analyses and RACI charts. Coming up, we'll talk
about project tools and resources, and the value of documentation. By the end of this module, you'll
understand the types of resources available to a project manager, you'll be able to document
information in a formal project charter, and you'll be able to compare and use various project
management tools. Ready to get started? Meet me in the next video.

Essential project resources

So far, you've learned how to determine project goals and scope and how to identify the right
stakeholders for a project. Now it's time to add another important ingredient: resources. As a project
manager, understanding your resource needs is crucial to achieving your goals. So during the initiation
phase, it's important to ask yourself: What are the things we still need to acquire in order to complete
our project? Project resources usually include budget, people, and materials. You'll use tools to manage
all those resources. As you think about the goals and the scope of the project, you'll figure out the
different resources you'll need to meet those goals. It's important to figure out your resources before
the project gets rolling. This makes it easy for everyone on your team to get their work done, and that's
your job as a project manager. You won't be doing the work directly, but you'll support the people who
do. Figuring out resources early on also helps you avoid accidentally understaffing your project, which
can seriously slow down team progress and eat away at the overall timeline. Even worse, if you're not
careful with your resource planning, you could wind up underestimating the budget, meaning you might
not have enough money to purchase necessary materials, hire vendors, or support overtime requests.
Planning your resources early is a great way to set your team up for success, because when your
teammates have what they need to do their work on time and on budget, they're better set up to meet
the project's goals. Now let's break down some of the resources that project managers typically work
with. First, let's talk about budgets. A budget is an estimate of the amount of money a project will cost
to complete. Almost all projects have budgets because they need funding for expenses, like buying the
right materials or software, hiring vendors to complete jobs, or doing marketing once the project's done.
During the initiation phase, you'll talk to the stakeholders and the people working on the project to
figure out the tasks needed to get the project done. Here, you might ask questions to help uncover
hidden costs. For example, are there any taxes on products that you need to account for? What about
extra fees? All this information will help you create a budget which you can use to source and compare
proposals from vendors, figure out upcoming costs, and track all the money moving in and out of your
project. You often include the budget and the project charter, and the stakeholders review it for
approval. We'll talk more about what goes into creating a project budget and creating a project charter
later on. When we talk about resources, we're also talking about the team of people who helped
execute the tasks of a project. For example, you, as the project manager, are a resource. So is the
marketing manager who might create advertisements for this new product. Other resources can include
people outside of your company who have unique skills and can do certain tasks that people in your
organization can't do personally. Then you have materials—these are items you need to help get the
project done. For example, project materials might include the lumber needed to complete a
construction project. Okay, so you know that project resources include budget, people, and materials.
How do you organize these resources? That's actually a nice transition into our next topic, which is tools.
Tools are aids that make it easier for a project manager or team to manage resources and organize
work. They help you do things like track tasks, manage budgets, and collaborate with teammates. There
are all kinds of tools out there, including productivity tools like Google Docs, and work management
software, like Asana. We'll talk more about these tools later in this program. Tools are essential for
tracking progress, so you'll want to keep them top of mind at all phases of your project. Let's talk about
how you might determine your resources during the initiation phase of your project at Office Green. As
a reminder, the Plant Pals service offers customers small, low maintenance plants like cacti and leafy
ferns that they can place on their desks. Customers can order them online or from a print catalog, and
Office Green will ship the plant straight to the customer's work address. The project goal is to increase
revenue by 5%. So how do you get started? Well, you might do some research to figure out the cost of
launching the new plant service. That might include the estimated prices of developing a new website
and new promotional materials, as well as shipping and delivery costs. You also might want to budget
for specific tools, like a project management software that will help you track progress on this complex
project. With that information, you can start to build a realistic budget. And you'll also need to figure out
who's working on this project with you. To do this, you might make a list of people and external vendors
who will help complete all the project's tasks; for example, the person who manages client
communications with customers or a new plant supplier that can provide you with your product. Great!
Hopefully, you're getting more comfortable with the types of resources you will need not only to get
stuff done, but to achieve your project's goals too. In the next video, we'll talk about documentation,
another important topic for anyone who manages projects professionally.

Managing resources to get the job done

As we continue learning the tools and techniques that will help you succeed in project management,
let’s consider the importance of project resources. Project resources are who and what you depend
on to complete a project, including budget, materials, and people. While each resource is a separate
entity, they all depend on one another—your team cannot do the work without materials, and you
cannot purchase materials without a budget. In this reading, we will discuss some key project
resources and tips for managing them.

Budget
Have you ever created a budget for yourself or your family? If you have, you know that a budget
includes a wide variety of expenses. For example, a monthly personal budget can contain items that
include anything from food to transportation costs to rent. With only a certain amount of funding to
cover each expense, it is important to closely monitor your spending to avoid going over budget. If
you go over in one category of your budget, you will impact the others and will need to make
adjustments. As a project manager, you will take the same general approach with your project
budget. 

Common aspects of your project budget will include:

 Team: the cost of the people performing the work

 Services: any outside vendors helping your project

 Materials: any tangible items purchased to complete the project

Throughout your project management career, you will encounter various types of projects with a
wide range of budgets. Some budgets will have no margin for error, whereas other budgets may be
more flexible. Regardless of this variability, budget issues will inevitably arise, so it is important to
make sure that the budget is aligned with the project scope and the stakeholders’ asks. 
People
People are a vital resource on your project; you cannot complete your project on your own! You will
need to rely on a strong team of people with a variety of skill sets and specialties to get the job done.
As a project manager, make sure that you have commitment and buy-in on the number of hours it
will take for your resources to complete their tasks. Additionally, you will find the best partners on a
project are people who are aligned to the goals of the project or who are most interested in the
project's work.

Materials
Materials can be different on every project. For example, if you were working on an IT project,
materials could include hard drives and computers to handle the coding efforts. You can also have
materials that are intangible. For example, on the same IT project, online storage, software
programs, or employee training may also be considered materials. It is important to account for any
and all potential materials in order to execute a successful project with the right people and within
budget. 

Key takeaway
Your project resources include things like the budget, people, and materials. As a project manager,
remembering that your resources are dependent on one another is key to understanding the function
of each resource and determining how to manage all of them. Take the time to interview
stakeholders and potential team members about what resources they think they will need in order to
deliver the project. They may have an idea of materials they require that you may not have
accounted for within the budget, for example, or can identify people with expertise that would make
them an asset to the project team. 

Next, we will discuss project charters, which are an important tool that project managers use to gain
clarity on the resources that they will need for a project.  

The value of project documentation

By now, you've probably noticed that a big part of project management is guiding decision-making. Even
if you're not the one making final decisions on major aspects of the project, it's still your job to keep
track of every new decision and use those decisions to create a plan. As you've learned, there are a lot
of important decisions to keep track of. That includes everything from identifying project goals and
deliverables to choosing the right people to add to a team. It's way too much for any one person to
mentally keep track of. It's also important information for everyone on the team to be aware of; not just
the project manager. If a decision affects a member of the team's tasks, they'll need to know about it,
right? That's why documentation is such an important part of a project manager's role. While your team
may work deeply on specific areas of the project, you might be the only person on the team who is
aware of and communicating across all the different areas of the project. Clear and consistent
documentation can ensure transparency and clear communication. Documentation helps set the stage
for the project. It communicates the answers to key questions. For example, what problem are you
trying to solve? What are the project goals? What are the scope and deliverables, and who are the
project's stakeholders? Lastly, what resources does the team need to complete their work? This is all
crucial information for anyone who's working on a project, regardless of their role. Documentation also
helps preserve decisions made early on in the project and can serve as a reference point for team
members who might join later in the project life cycle. It's your job to ensure that this information is
easily accessible through some kind of formal documentation, like an e-mail, a presentation, or a digital
document. Also, documenting decisions can help you uncover tasks, timelines, or costs you hadn't
previously considered. And lastly, this process provides a historical record that can be reviewed at the
end of your project. You can apply the lessons you've learned in the future. Ok, let's get into different
types of documentation. Up next, we'll look at project proposals and project charters, two types of
documents that can set you up for success early on. See you soon!

Project proposals and charters 101

Hello, and welcome back. Earlier, we discussed the value of documentation in effective project
management. Now let's talk about two common types of documentation you could use to keep track of
details and keep your stakeholders informed. These are: the project proposal and the project charter. A
project proposal is a form of documentation that comes at the very beginning of the project. This
document's purpose is to persuade stakeholders that a project should begin. And typically, a senior
organizational leader creates the proposal. So you might not need to worry about creating the proposal,
but you will have to keep track of the proposal's progress. The project proposal is a great starting point
to help you understand the desired goals and impact. A proposal may be a formal document, a
presentation, or even a simple email to get others on board with the idea. Then, we have the project
charter: a formal document that clearly defines the project and outlines the necessary details to reach
its goals. A project charter helps you get organized, set up a framework for what needs to be done, and
communicate those details to others. So how do these documents differ? A project proposal is created
earlier in the project life cycle than the project charter. The proposal kicks off the initiation phase by
influencing and persuading the company to move forward with the project. The project charter serves a
similar purpose and often comes at the end of the initiation phase. However, its goal is to more clearly
define the key details of the project. Another difference between these two documents is that a charter
will often serve as a point of reference throughout the life of a project. The proposal is only used at the
earlier stages. Now that you know the difference between these two documents, let's take a closer look
at the project charter, which you'll learn more about in this module. The project charter makes clear
that the benefits of the project outweigh the costs. As you learned earlier in this course, there are a few
questions you might ask yourself when performing a cost benefit analysis. That includes questions like:
What value will this project create? And how much money could this project save my organization? How
much time will people have to spend on this project? You'll include the answers to these questions in
your charter. Including this type of information ensures that you and your stakeholders agree on the
project value. The charter also helps ensure that you and your stakeholders agree on the details of the
project. Project charter approval means that management is supportive, and it's also a key step to
ensure that the project matches the needs of the organization. After the stakeholders and project
sponsor have reviewed and approved the project charter, you now have the authority to move forward
with the project. Project charters can be formatted in a few ways and can contain different information
depending on the project and the organization. The information in a charter might also be tailored to its
audience or the needs of specific stakeholders. For example, if you're writing a project charter for a
stakeholder who is a marketing executive, the charter might include information about how the project
will impact the organization's brand. Or if the stakeholder is a chief technology officer, the charter might
include information on the cost of engineering resources needed to maintain the project. Regardless of
the format or the audience, creating a project charter is a best practice for ensuring that everyone
agrees on how to move forward before entering the planning phase. The project charter is a living
document. This means that it can evolve as the project progresses. As the project manager, you'll review
and refine the charter throughout the process. Now that you know more about the value of a project
charter, it's time to learn how to create one. Meet me in the next video to get started!

Project charters: Elements and formats

A project charter clearly defines the project and outlines the necessary details for the project to
reach its goals. A well-documented project charter can be a project manager’s secret weapon to
success. In this reading, we will go over the function, key elements, and significance of a project
charter and learn how to create one. 

The charter is the formal way that the project’s goals, values, benefits, and details are captured. You
can think of the charter as the compass for your project since you will use it throughout the life cycle
of the project. Many stakeholders will look to your project charter to ensure that you are indeed
aligned with strategic goals and set up for achieving the desired end goal. Since the project charter
carries so much importance, it is important to incorporate the right amount of detail while omitting
miscellaneous elements.

As with any of your project documents, it is a good idea to collaborate with your team and
stakeholders early and often. Developing the project charter in collaboration with both groups can
help you make sure that your project charter addresses your key stakeholders’ most important
concerns and keeps your team aligned. Be sure to use the business case—the reason for initiating
the project—as the guiding direction to your project charter. Project charters can vary from
organization to organization and from project to project. It is key for a project manager to identify the
best type of charter for the project in order to capture the relevant information and set your project up
for success. Project charters will vary but usually include some combination of the following key
information:

 introduction/project summary

 goals/objectives 

 business case/benefits and costs

 project team

 scope

 success criteria

 major requirements or key deliverables

 budget

 schedule/timeline or milestones

 constraints and assumptions

 risks

 OKRs

 approvals

You will likely use many different project charter formats throughout your project management
career. One example is a condensed, simplified document, like the one you'll learn about in the
upcoming video and the one linked in the activities. A short and simple project charter can be used
on smaller projects that are not very complex. 
For more complex projects, you may link to additional analysis or documents. You can house these
items in the appendix. 

Your organization may have a unique template for you to use, or you may have the flexibility to
leverage one you come across in your career. As your project progresses, you may also encounter
revisions to your project charter—and that is okay. Remember, it is a living document; let it grow with
your project, and review and revisit it often to ensure you are aligned. 

Developing a project charter

Hi again. Let's talk about how to create a project charter. In the last video, we discussed how project
charters are a valuable document for project managers. Project charters are key for securing approval
from stakeholders and moving forward. Project charters can also be formatted in many different ways,
and there are many different templates available online for you to choose from. Here, we'll use a
template that's similar to one that program managers often use at Google. To fill in each section, we'll
use details from your project at Office Green. Ready? Let's take a look. At the top of your charter, you
want to add in the name of your project. Let's add in the name of your project at Office Green. It's called
Project Plant Pals. You'll also want to add in a brief summary. Let's type that in. Our plan is to offer high
volume customers small, low-maintenance plants that can thrive in an office environment.

Next up, let's fill in the section, labeled "project goals." Remember that goals should be SMART, which
means that they are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. Let's add in the goal for
Project Plant Pals, which is to increase revenue by five percent by rolling out a new service that provides
office plants to top clients by the end of the year.

Great. Now, let's add in the project deliverable. Remember that a deliverable is a tangible outcome from
a project. As you learned earlier, our deliverables for this project are to send 1,000 plants to 100
customers and to launch a new website for orders and customer support.

Now, let's add in the business case, which captures the reasoning for initiating this project. Let's type in:
"This is a top requested service from our customers, and it will also improve customer satisfaction and
retention."

he business case is supported by the cost benefit analysis, and we'll add that in now. We'll start with the
benefits. The benefits or expected gains of the project include improving customer satisfaction and an
increase in revenue. Now, we'll move on to the costs. The costs include the price of the sourcing
products, developing a website, and marketing materials. Let's type in $250,000 for the estimated
budget. Nice. We've now outlined some of the benefits and costs of this project. Keep in mind that these
are simple examples to teach you the basics of filling out a charter. When running a real project, you'll
perform a more detailed analysis to determine the benefits and costs. The key takeaway here is that
benefits should always outweigh the costs. Fantastic. Let's keep going. Next we're going to add in the
project scope, as well as what to consider out-of-scope for this project. Remember, scope is an agreed
upon understanding of what is included or excluded from a project. An item that is in-scope includes
creating a service to deliver small plants to last year's top clients.

An item that is out-of-scope, and therefore not available to customers, includes plant care after they're
delivered. Amazing. Hopefully you can see how stating what's in-scope and what's out-of-scope helps
everyone working on the project understand where they should focus their efforts. Great. Now, let's add
in your project team. Let's see here. The project sponsor is Office Green's Director of Product, so let's
add that in. Who is the project lead? Well, that's you!

The project team may include marketing associates, website developers and external plant vendors, and
more. We can add in a few important project team members here.

Awesome. Let's move on to additional stakeholders. Additional stakeholders may include the vice
president of customer success, who's accountable for customer feedback and corresponding product
requests. We can also add in the account manager who will leverage the existing relationships with top
clients. Let's also add in the fulfillment manager who will help acquire the plants needed to launch the
service. We're almost done. Let's add in how we'll measure success. Here, we'll type in that we want to
see a five percent increase in revenue by the end of the year. Let's also type in that we want to hit a
customer satisfaction rate of 95 percent three months after launch. That's it. The project charter is filled
in and now it's ready to be reviewed by your stakeholders. Now you're done. You've seen how
documentation helps form the roots of a project and how it contributes to the project's ultimate
success. Like nurturing a plant, you're learning to nurture a project to ensure it's the best it can be. Up
next, we'll talk about the tools that project managers rely on to guide their teams and ensure that they
complete their tasks. See you soon.

Tareas calificadas por los compañeros:

Activity: Create a project charter
Entregar antes del 4 de jul. 23:59 PDT

Enviar tu trabajo antes

Si bien debes entregar tu trabajo el 4 de jul. 23:59 PDT, si puedes, intenta enviarlo 1 o 2 días antes.
Si lo envías antes, puedes tener una mejor oportunidad de obtener las revisiones de compañeros
que necesitas a tiempo.

1. Instrucciones
2. Mi presentación
3. Discusiones
Activity Overview

Earlier in this course, you examined a sample charter for the Plant Pals project as a whole. For this
exercise, you will create a new charter for an upcoming stage of the Plant Pals project. Be aware
that most projects have a single charter to set expectations and keep stakeholders aligned.
However, creating your own charter for the next stage of the project will give you a chance to
practice what you’ve learned.

In this activity, you will fill out a partially-completed project charter. Keep in mind that project charters
can differ significantly from project to project and company to company. However, most charters
include some variation of the components described in this activity. No matter what form they take,
charters lay out project goals, highlight benefits, and align stakeholders.

After you submit your work, review and respond to at least two of your classmates’ assignments.

Scenario
menos 

Review the scenario below. Then complete the step-by-step instructions.

As the Plant Pals project manager, one of your responsibilities is building an Operations and
Training plan for the new service. The creation and implementation of this plan marks a new stage of
the Plant Pals project with its own set of goals and deliverables. Its main goal is to create
sustainable fulfillment and delivery practices for the service’s day-to-day operations. Putting these
processes in place is essential to making a launch of this size successful.

To meet this goal, your team will create internal processes and training procedures for support
teams, so they can meet the demands of the Plant Pals service. These processes will help mitigate
potential revenue losses due to late shipments and cancellations by ensuring an efficient, high-
quality customer experience. By ensuring that Plant Pals runs smoothly, the plan also supports the
larger project goal of a 5% revenue increase for Office Green.

You estimate that it will take six months to fully implement all protocols, including setting up
operational tools, putting delivery processes in place, and training employees. The Operations and
Training plan should stay within a budget of $75,000.

Some of the milestones your team must reach to complete this project include:
  Create a plant delivery and logistics plan to make the fulfillment process as efficient as
possible. Your target is to deliver 95% of orders on time within one month of launch.
Tasks include purchasing delivery trucks, hiring drivers, calculating delivery fees, and
determining delivery routes and schedules. 
 Set up order processing and supply chain management software to make revenue
streams more efficient. Your team must select, install, and maintain the software to
ensure it continues to function properly. If it does, all orders should be packaged and
ready for shipment within two business days of being placed. 
 Maintain excellent service standards by developing and launching an employee training
program. You want to train 90% of employees before the official service launch. To
reach this milestone, your team needs to create a communications plan, prepare
training lessons, and schedule and conduct training sessions.

Your first step is to create a charter to align your stakeholders and map out what your team needs to
know to create and implement the plan.

Step-By-Step Assignment Instructions

menos 

Step 1: Access the template

To use the template for this course item, click the link below and select “Use Template.”

Link to template: Project charter

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the template directly from the attachment
below.

Activity Template_ Project charter.docx

Step 2: Write an executive summary

Under Executive Summary, write 1-3 sentences outlining the project’s purpose and desired
outcomes.

For example, if you were writing an executive summary for the Plant Pals project as a whole, it might
say:
“Our plan is to create a service that offers high-volume customers small, low-maintenance plants
that can thrive in an office environment.”

Step 3: Fill in the project goal

In the Project Goal section of the charter, record the main project goal of the Operations and
Training plan. This goal should be more detailed and specific than your executive summary. Use the
information from the scenario to make the goal SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant,
Time-bound). 

For example, one of the SMART goals for the overall Plant Pals project is:

“Increase revenue by 5% by the end of the year by rolling out a new service that provides office
plants to top clients.”

Note: Most projects have multiple goals, but you only need one for this activity.

Step 4: Identify the project deliverables

In the Deliverables box, record three expected outcomes of the project. Remember, these
deliverables can be tangible or intangible project results. 

For instance, one tangible deliverable of the overall Plant Pals project is, “send 1,000 plants to 100
customers.” An intangible deliverable could be, “increased brand awareness.”

Step 5: Determine the business case for the project

In the Business Case/ Background section, explain the reason for the project and how it supports
the company’s overall success. Making a business case also gives your team the necessary context
for project tasks, so be sure to include any useful background information as well.

For example, the business case for the overall Plant Pals project might be, “This is a top requested
service from our customers, and it will also improve customer satisfaction and retention.”

Step 6: Fill in the benefits and cost areas (optional)

The Benefits, Costs, and Budget section already includes three benefits of the project, three cost
areas, and the budget amount. If you would like, you can fill in any additional benefits or cost areas
from the scenario. This section of the charter is optional and will not be graded.
For benefits, describe what Office Green hopes to get out of the project. This can include direct
financial benefits (e.g., sales revenue), as well as indirect benefits (e.g., increased customer trust).
Remember that the benefits should support your business case. 

For costs, think about how the completing project could impact the company. Consider time and
resources in addition to any financial impact. 

 Note: You don’t need to assign monetary values to these cost areas in this exercise.
You will break down the costs of the Plant Pals Operations and Training Plan project in
detail in the next course, Project Planning: Putting It All Together .)

Step 7: Define the project scope (optional)

The Scope and Exclusion section already contains three areas that are in-scope and two that are
out-of-scope for the project. If you want to further define the scope, you can fill in additional in-scope
and out-of-scope items. This section of the charter is optional and will not be graded.

Note: The charter should also list the members of your project team. This section has been filled out
for you. 

Step 8: Determine how to measure success

In the Measuring Success section, list two examples of success criteria that can help you
determine when the project has reached its goal. You can use criteria from the scenario or
determine other ways to measure project success. Remember that success criteria should be
specific and measurable. 

For instance, success criteria for Plant Pals as a whole could include “a 5% increase in revenue by
the end of the year” or “a 5% increase in customer satisfaction (from 90% to 95%) three months
after launch.” Both of these criteria include metrics that make it easy to tell when the project has
reached its goals.

Pro Tip: Save the template

Finally, be sure to save a blank copy of the project charter template you used to complete this
activity. You can use it for further practice or in your own personal or professional projects. These
templates will be useful as you put together a portfolio of project management artifacts. You can use
them to work through your thought processes as you demonstrate your experience to potential
employers.

Grading Criteria Overview

menos 
There are a total of 9 points for this activity. At least two of your peers will evaluate your project
charter. Your final grade will be the median of these scores. You must get 8 out of 9 total points to
pass.

Giving Good Feedback

menos 

Once you complete the activity, review and provide constructive feedback for at least two of your
classmates. Below are some guidelines to help you leave constructive comments for your peers. 

When giving feedback, consider:

 Leading with positive feedback

 Providing a balance of positive and actionable feedback
 Sticking to information-specific, issue-focused, and observation-centered comments

Ready to submit your work? Head to the My Submission

tab at the top of the page.

Utilizing tools for effective project management

As a project manager, tools are some of the most helpful resources you have at your disposal. They're
essential for tracking progress, so it's important to keep them top of mind throughout the entire project.
Let's talk more about why tools are so useful and why it's important to choose the right ones for your
needs. There are lots of different tools out there, and you'll learn more about them later. As a reminder,
tools are aids that make it easier for a project manager or team to manage resources and organize work.
They're useful because they can help you track detailed information about all kinds of tasks, and they
make it easy to communicate with lots of different people. And remember, effective communication and
tracking are huge parts of a project manager's day-to-day responsibilities. Just think about how much
tougher your job would be without help from collaboration tools like e-mail or digital documents
created in Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Let's imagine this in the context of our project at Office
Green. As lead project manager, you have tons of information about the company's plan to provide
office-friendly plants to top clients. But what would happen if you wrote every project detail on a
whiteboard instead of a shared online document? Well, every member of your team would have to stop
by your desk to get the latest information, and that's definitely not the most efficient use of anyone's
time. But if you store this information in easily-accessible online documents, you save everyone on the
team time, energy, and a major headache. Today's tools have made it so much easier to share
information with teammates. Even better with project management tools, information sharing goes
both ways. That means team members can also easily update you on their progress without the need for
extra meetings or phone calls. How great is that? When you choose the right tool for a project, you
make it easy for teammates to let you know if a task is on schedule or if it's delayed, which lets you
quickly see how any changes might affect the rest of the project. Project management tools increase
visibility and transparency for everyone, including stakeholders. You can use a variety of tools to
accomplish many different things, like tracking progress on tasks, deliverables, and milestones. Tools can
also help you manage a budget, build helpful charts and diagrams, manage contracts and licenses, and
keep stakeholders informed. Tools can be straightforward, like digital spreadsheets or documents, or
they can be more sophisticated, like scheduling and work management software. It's important to think
about the needs of the project when choosing which to use. One thing to keep in mind is that if you
choose a more sophisticated tool, your teammates and stakeholders will need some time to get familiar
with it. For small projects, that might be more trouble than it's worth. So for small projects, a
straightforward tool might be more effective. But if a project has a big scope, then it might be worth the
team's time to learn and ultimately work with a more sophisticated project management tool. You
should also keep in mind that sometimes you won't have a choice about the types of tools you use. If an
organization has already decided to use a specific tool, then you will need to work with what they give
you. It's all about remaining flexible. Are you starting to see how you can use tools to keep projects on
track? Whether they're straightforward or sophisticated, tools have the power to help you communicate
and manage more effectively. Next up, we'll cover some of the most common types of tools for effective
project management. See you there!

Introducing new tools to a team

Project management tools and processes are always evolving. In this reading, we will discuss the
importance of choosing the right tools for a project and the implications of introducing new tools to
your team. 

As a project manager, it is important to be open to implementing new tools that may be beneficial to
a project's outcome. You will experience change in lots of forms throughout your project’s life cycle,
and navigating change is essential. But if you choose to implement a tool that your team is unfamiliar
with—especially if you decide to roll it out midway through a project—your team may be hesitant.
People embrace change differently, particularly if the change will directly impact their routine and the
way they work. Simply put: Change can be met with resistance.

Before you introduce a new tool to your team, you should be sure that this change is actually going
to benefit the project, and ensure that those involved in your project understand the benefits of this
change. Demonstrating to your teammates and stakeholders that you understand the tool and have
evaluated its competency will help build trust, especially if this new tool is replacing an existing tool.
Taking the time to introduce the new tool to your team members will also demonstrate that you have
the best interest of the team in mind—not just the success of the project. 

Here are some important considerations and keys to successfully introducing new tools:

 Discuss the tool early and often, if possible. The team should not feel blindsided by
a new change. Make sure they know the change is coming as early as possible. This will
help them prepare for an introduction or migration to the new tool.

 Ask for feedback from key stakeholders. You could get great feedback on features
that you may have overlooked without asking for their expertise. You can solicit this
feedback by requesting their input about functionality or have them list features in order
of priority. The key is to create an opportunity for stakeholders to provide their feedback
and allow you to incorporate their feedback into next steps.
 Involve the key stakeholders in demonstrations as you get closer to making the
final decision on the project tracking tool. You will be able to leverage key
stakeholders' acceptance by letting them test the product or sign up for a trial run. It is
also important to make sure that the tool is actually going to meet the mark and
provide a meaningful change for the project. You may want to pull in key users from
 your team to test and familiarize themselves with the tool prior to rolling it out. This will
allow the team to get on board with your plans or discuss their concerns beforehand.
This will also highlight in-house experts for future training, assistance, and
implementation.

 Ensure the tool is fully functional before the team is introduced to it. Whenever
possible, hold off from introducing the tool if it still has any issues. Make sure the tool is
accessible for all users. Keep in mind, your team members may resist a tool that doesn’t
live up to how it is supposed to function. This will impact implementation and
acceptance fairly significantly, so put your best tool forward!

 Set up training for the tool as needed before you ask the team to actually use it.
Everyone has different levels of comfort with different tools. It is your job as the project
manager to ensure that each team members’ needs are addressed. Setting up training
also helps create positive first impressions, which will lead to higher productivity and
quicker, more successful implementation and acceptance.

Remember, some pushback is normal, but successful project managers should take the steps to
prepare and mitigate any friction for their team when possible. 

Pro tip: If time allows, plan for a period of transition if you are replacing an existing tool. It is
common to allow both tools to operate during this period. You will need to “sunset,” or retire, the
existing tool eventually, but allowing for a period of transition between using the old tool and the new
tool can help stakeholders and team members feel more at ease and give them time to gain
familiarity with the new tool. Be prepared for productivity to be impacted as the team transitions from
one tool to another.

Exploring types of project management tools

Hi there. So, you've learned about how tools can make you more effective. Now let's learn more about
the different types of tools used in project management. These include scheduling and work
management software and tools for productivity and collaboration. Let's get started. One common tool
type is scheduling and work management software. There are lots of different types of work
management software on the market, including popular tools like these. Certain tools may work better
for your project depending on a bunch of things; for example, the project methodology you're running
or the number of tasks and people involved. So, why would you choose to use scheduling and work
management software? Well, it can be really useful for assigning tasks to multiple teammates and for
tracking progress on that work. It can also help you visualize your team's progress. For example, if you're
using work management software to assign and track tasks, you're more likely to notice if your team
completes 50 tasks one week and just three tasks the following week. That's a clear sign that you need
to check in to see if there's a problem that's blocking progress. If you hadn't been tracking their tasks,
you might not have noticed the issue. That's part of the reason why work management software is so
useful. It provides an overview of how the project is going so you know when you need to check in with
your teams to get tasks back on track. Another type of project management tool we'll discuss is tools for
productivity. Productivity tools can be very helpful for you and your team. This includes word processing
tools, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. You can use these to create shared documents with the
team, like the project charter we taught you how to fill out earlier. You can also use these tools to build
documents like meeting agendas and status updates, and we'll talk more about these in a later course.
Spreadsheets are another useful productivity tool. They're versatile, and you can use them to make
documents, like RACI charts and project plans, as well as other helpful charts you'll learn more about in
a later course. And presentations created in tools, like Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides
can be a great way to package your project in a visual, easily-digestible way. Now, let's discuss
collaboration tools, which you'll probably rely on to work closely with your teammates. These include
tools you're probably familiar with, like email and chat. Tools like this can help you quickly and efficiently
check in with each other on questions, comments, and other topics related to the project. Productivity
tools like documents and spreadsheets, and collaboration tools like email and chat, are all pretty simple,
which means they're great for smaller projects with fewer tasks and teammates to keep track of.
Scheduling and work management software is better for bigger projects with a larger number of tasks
and a bigger team of people to manage. Cool. You've learned more about the types of tools available to
you, including scheduling and work management software, productivity tools, and collaboration tools.
We'll spend the next video diving a bit deeper on some of the most popular project management tools
out there. Meet you there.

Common project management tools

Earlier, you learned about different types of project management tools, from scheduling and work
management software, to tools for productivity and collaboration. Now let's discuss a few popular tools
you might be expected to use, or at least be familiar with. There are many different types of work
management software that automatically make project planning and tracking a lot easier and that are
much more efficient than manual project tracking. One tool that we'll focus on in this program is Asana.
Asana is a work management platform that helps teams plan and coordinate their work from daily tasks
to strategic initiatives. Asana provides a living system and a source of truth where everyone's work lives.
With Asana, everyone can see, discuss, and manage team priorities, giving teams clarity on who is doing
what by when. It's great for building project plans, assigning tasks, automating workflows, tracking
progress, and communicating with stakeholders. As a project manager, you can use Asana to create a
log of tasks, like gathering cost estimates from external vendors, and assign a task to people on the
team. All tasks are visible and organized in the format of the project manager's choice—like in a list or
on a calendar—and designed to drive transparency and connection with all the tasks related to the
overall goal. It's easy to use with external stakeholders as well, because within Asana, you can share
status updates and other communications with people outside your company. Another great tool we'll
focus on throughout this program is the spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are extremely versatile, and you can
use them for a wide range of tasks, from creating timelines and billing charts to managing budgets and
tracking tasks. You can add and view project information in a variety of formats, depending on what you
need in the moment. For example, let's say you enter a list of tasks, due dates, completion statuses, and
task owners into a spreadsheet. From there, it's very simple to sort the list by due date to see what's
due next. You can then filter the list of tasks by task owner, so that you only see the things you're
responsible for.

You can also highlight the rows of the sheet in different colors to visually illustrate the tasks with the
least progress. With spreadsheets, you can easily transform, visualize, and manipulate information.
Spreadsheets and more comprehensive tools like Asana are just two options for effective project
management, and it's a good idea to get a basic understanding of the variety of software options out
there. Then, if your company doesn't have a standard software tool, you can choose to write one for the
project needs. Being able to recommend the right tool for the job can be a great way to add value to
your team at the beginning of a project. Keep in mind, however, that software options are constantly
changing. From the addition of new features to the launch of new tools, there's no way for you to know
every software available, and no company would expect that of you. Many of these tools have similar
functionality, like task tracking and task assignment, so if you understand one tool deeply, you should be
able to easily adapt to a new tool on the job. Now that you've learned a bit more about Asana and the
power of spreadsheets, take some time to explore these tools, since we'll be working with them later in
the program. Coming up, you'll hear from a project manager who will tell you all about their experience
using tools during their day-to-day role at Google. Stay tuned.3

Demonstrating your knowledge of project management tools

During an interview for a project manager position, the interviewer may ask you to discuss the
project management tools you are familiar with or have used in the past. There are many types of
project management tools that you will come across during your career. These tools will continue to
grow and change as technology improves. Being able to talk about these tools, and how you use
them, will be crucial to landing the role.

In addition to the interviewer asking general questions about tools, they may ask more specific
questions, like “How do you know if a project is off track?” It’s important to tie this answer back to the
types of scheduling tools you have learned about in this course. If you haven’t had experience
working with certain scheduling tools, like Smartsheet or digital spreadsheets—try to leverage real-
life experience. 

For example, have you ever planned for a move? If so, you can discuss how you planned your
timeline and scheduled vendors so that you could meet your move date. Did you use a spreadsheet
to keep track of your budget, schedule, and belongings? This experience demonstrates you
understand how to use tools. It also demonstrates that you know the importance of creating,
monitoring, and managing the project schedule to deliver results at project completion. 

Another related question the interviewer may ask could be, “How do you execute tasks within your
timeline?” This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your ability to be productive by sharing your
experience with tools, such as digital documents or spreadsheets. These tools help you create
project artifacts, track tasks, and store project details in one place! You can also use them as a
collaboration tool because they are easily shareable with teammates and stakeholders and allow for
real-time updates. 

Finally, there are special project management tools, also called work management tools, that put all
the benefits discussed above into one place. Project management tools such as Asana,
Monday.com, Basecamp, and Trello are among some of the top ranked tools for managing projects. 
These tools help you plan, track, and complete work across many project phases. They often have
visually appealing layouts and automated features that save time and create efficiency in a project
manager’s day-to-day tasks.  Explaining your knowledge of these tools—and how they benefit the
project manager, team, and company—in an interview is a great way to demonstrate that you are
qualified for the role.

Pro tip: Learn more by trying free tutorials or trial versions of popular project management tools. By
navigating project management software, you will be able to explain the uses and functionality of
these types of tools firsthand. Here are some examples to get started:

 Asana and Asana Guide

 Basecamp

 Trello

 Jira

 ClickUp

 Monday.com

 Microsoft Project or Project Libre (open source)

 Smartsheet (Demo)
Amar: Tools are our best friends
Hi, I'm Amar. I'm a Senior Engineering Program Manager at Google Shopping, and on a day-to-day basis,
I drive programs which span across multiple products at Google. As a Project Manager, tools are our
best friends. Tools and the tools which will help us drive the execution—those should be near and dear
to us, and those are near and dear to me. What I look at is what tools will help me create the body of
work. There are a lot of open source tools as free tools, like Google Spreadsheets are there, Google Docs
is there. Many of these tools are out there, and there are some other supporting tools also, like JIRA and
ALM. These will help you create the body of work. This will help you define that what needs to be
delivered and when. This will help you create the timeline. There are timeline tools, like Gantt Chart,
Gantt tools, that you will find out. Then there are tools which will help you drive the visibility across the
board and that drive the dependent ecosystem. We want to make sure when we are starting the
project, we look at the available toolset so that we are not defragging the system that much, we are not
really kind of adding too many complexities on new tools in the ecosystems. We want make sure that,
ok, what are the current tools which are out there? Have a look at this toolset. Find out, are those
supported? Find out what's the current adoption rate, and look at what are the gaps. If there are gaps,
go for new tools. Propose new tools to improve productivity. But if there's an existing toolset which our
team is following, which your team is following, try to learn those tools because those are the tools
which will get quick adoption, and those will be an amazing toolset to have with you.
Course wrap-up
Nice work! Getting through all this material is a huge accomplishment. Take a moment to consider how
much you've learned so far about the ins and outs of successfully kicking off a project. You dug deeper
on initiation, the first phase of the project life cycle, and how important it is to determine your project
scope, including what's in-scope and what's not. You also learned about project goals and deliverables,
and you learned how to measure project success by creating success criteria early on.
Then you learned to define project rules and responsibilities. Choosing the right people for a project
team is a big decision and one you'll always want to consider carefully. You now know how to create a
stakeholder analysis that tells you how and when to communicate with different stakeholders, and you
learned how to create and track team accountability using a RACI chart.

You also studied the final steps of the initiation phase: identifying resources, creating documentation,
and selecting tools. You learned about the resources that project managers rely on to achieve the goals
of a project, from budgets to people to the materials needed to complete a deliverable. You also learned
the value of documenting your work using a project charter, which is a key step to getting approval to
start your project.

Lastly, you learned about the many types of tools that can help you be a more efficient project manager
—from straightforward tools like email, to sophisticated tools like Asana. Completing this course is no
small feat, and you've put in hours of work. Give yourself a pat on the back! You've earned it. In the next
course, you'll jump right into the next phase of the project life cycle, and my colleague, Rowena, will be
your guide. Get ready to have some fun as Rowena shows you the ropes of serious project planning!