Project Strategy Artifacts

Artifacts

• Artifacts include any template, document, project deliverable, or final output.
• The objective is to inspire adaptation of artifacts to specific project needs, rather than teaching creation from scratch.

Strategy Artifacts

• Strategy artifacts establish a project's foundation, shaping strategic direction and goals.
• These are created at or before project start and can be revisited as the project evolves.
• Business Case: Defines the project’s value and highlights financial and non-financial benefits.
• Business Model Canvas: Presents a one-page visual of a project's value, customers, infrastructure, and finances, suitable for lean startups or quick overviews.
• Project Brief: Provides a high-level summary of a project’s objectives, deliverables, and processes.
• Project Charter: Officially authorizes the project and allows the project manager to allocate resources.
• Project Vision Statement: Concisely summarizes purpose to inspire the team and maintain focus.
• Roadmap: Consists of a timeline of major milestones, events, and decisions guiding the project.

Project Plans

• Planning forms the basis of project success, assisting teams in journey mapping, task simplification, and ensuring smooth execution.
• Plans can manifest as written documents or visual tools such as virtual whiteboards.
• Change Control Plan: Manages changes by establishing a change control board, defining its authority and outlining the change process.
• Communications Management Plan: Defines how, when, and by whom project information is shared for smooth collaboration.
• Cost Management Plan: Ensures costs are planned, structured, and controlled to avoid budget surprises.
• Iteration Plan: Helps teams focus on the current iteration by zeroing in on what needs to be done now.
• Procurement Management Plan: Ensures a seamless and efficient process when bringing in goods or services from outside.
• Project Management Plan: Outlines how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled, and completed.
• Quality Management Plan: Explains the policies and procedures needed to meet quality goals and deliver great results.
• Release Plan: Sets expectations early by outlining dates, features, and outcomes for multiple iterations.
• Requirements Management Plan: Tracks project needs by explaining how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
• Resource Management Plan: Ensures people, tools, and materials are acquired, allocated, and monitored to keep the project running smoothly.
• Risk Management Plan: Explains how risks will be identified, assessed, and managed to keep the team ready for anything.
• Scope Management Plan: Defines, develops, monitors, and controls the project scope, keeping everything clear and on track.
• Schedule Management Plan: Sets criteria and processes for developing, monitoring, and controlling the project schedule.
• Stakeholder Engagement Plan: Lays out strategies to keep stakeholders engaged and involved in decisions.
• Test Plan: Covers what will be tested, how it will be done, and the processes involved to ensure deliverables meet expectations.

Hierarchy Charts

• Hierarchy charts simplify complex information into structured levels, starting with an overview and diving into more detail.
• These can evolve to reflect added complexity as projects progress.
• Organizational Breakdown Structure: Maps out project organization, connecting "who" to "what" by showing how activities align with teams.
• Product Breakdown Structure: Visualizes a product's components and deliverables, showing how they fit together.
• Resource Breakdown Structure: Categorizes resources by type and group for a clear view of availability and needs.
• Risk Breakdown Structure: Organizes potential risks into categories, making it easier to address challenges early on.
• Work Breakdown Structure: Breaks the project into manageable tasks and deliverables, guiding the team step-by-step.

Baseline

• A baseline is an approved work product or plan and serves as the standard for performance measurement and deviation spotting.
• Budget: Is the projects financial blueprint, shows estimate to keep spending in check.
• Milestone Schedule: Marks progress and lists key dates to keep the project on track.
• Performance Measurement Baseline: Combines scope, schedule, and cost into one baseline for managing and measuring project execution.
• Project Schedule: Acts as a roadmap, outlining activities, dates, durations, milestones, and resources to show the bigger picture.
• Scope Baseline: Consists of the approved scope statement, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and WBS dictionary, serving as a benchmark for tracking progress and managing changes.

Visual Data and Information Tools

• Visual data tools transform complex numbers into actionable insights through charts, graphs, and diagrams, to enhance data understanding, task prioritization, and decision-making.
• Affinity Diagram: Groups ideas into meaningful categories for easier analysis.
• Burndown/Burnup Chart: Visually tracks progress, showing work remaining or milestones reached.
• Cause-and-Effect Diagram: Identifies the root cause of issues by tracing back from outcomes.
• Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD): Offers a clear view of workflow, including completed tasks, ongoing work, and backlog.
• Cycle Time Chart: Measures how long tasks take, uncovering trends or bottlenecks.
• Dashboards: Instantly displays project progress with concise visual metrics.
• Flowchart: Maps processes step-by-step to understand inputs and outcomes.
• Gantt Chart: Displays project timelines with activities shown as calendar bars.
• Histogram: Presents numerical data in a simple bar chart format.
• Information Radiator: Shares key project details with a visible, physical display.
• Lead Time Chart: Tracks how long work items take to complete on average.
• Prioritization Matrix: Categorizes tasks by effort and value in a four-quadrant chart.
• Project Schedule Network Diagram: Visualizes task dependencies in a connected diagram.
• Requirements Traceability Matrix: Links requirements to deliverables to ensure nothing is missed.
• Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM): Defines roles across tasks using a RACI chart.
• Scatter Diagram: Explores correlations or patterns between two variables.
• S-Curve: Monitors cumulative project costs over time.
• Stakeholder Engagement Matrix: Compares current vs. desired stakeholder involvement.
• Story Map: Maps product features and functionality to keep teams aligned.
• Throughput Chart: Tracks deliverables completed over time to measure productivity.
• Use Case: Shows how users interact with systems to achieve goals.
• Value Stream Map: Analyzes and improves process flow to reduce waste.
• Velocity Chart: Tracks how quickly deliverables are completed and accepted.

Reports

• Reports communicate clear updates to stakeholders such as sponsors, business owners, or PMOs who are tracking project progress.
• Quality Report: Highlights quality issues, suggests corrective actions, and summarizes quality control findings to drive process, project, or product improvements.
• Risk Report: Monitors project risks and overall risk levels as part of risk management.
• Status Report: Tracks project progress with updates since the last report and forecasts costs and schedules.

Agreements

• Agreements are the foundation of collaboration and often take the form of contracts or formal understandings that set expectations.
• Fixed-Price Contracts: Sets a clear price for a well-defined product, service, or result. Examples include firm fixed price (FFP), fixed-price incentive fee (FPIF), and fixed price with economic price adjustment (FP-EPA).
• Cost-Reimbursable Contracts: Sellers are paid for actual costs plus a profit fee. Examples include cost plus award fee (CPAF), cost plus fixed fee (CPFF), and cost plus incentive fee (CPIF).
• Time and Materials (T&M): Functions as a pay-as-you-go model with a fixed hourly or daily rate, but no set scope.
• Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ): Provides flexibility by allowing for an unspecified amount of goods or services within a set time.
• Other Agreements: Including Memoranda of Understanding (MOU), Memoranda of Agreement (MOA), Service Level Agreements (SLA), and Basic Ordering Agreements (BOA), clarify roles, expectations, and standards.

Other Artifacts

• Activity List: A table of schedule activities, including descriptions, identifiers, and a detailed scope so that team members know what work to perform.
• Bid Documents: Used to request proposals from potential sellers.
  • Request for Information (RFI)
  • Request for Quotation (RFQ)
  • Request for Proposal (RFP)
• Metrics: Attributes and how they are measured.
• Project Calendar: Identifies working days and shifts available for scheduled activities.
• Requirements Documentation: Records product requirements with associated category, priority, and acceptance criteria.
• Project Team Charter: States team values, agreements, and guidelines, establishing expectations for acceptable behavior.
• User Story: A summary of a user outcome that can be used to prompt further discussion.