stage agreement

8/8/2019 Stage Agreement

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Stage Agreement



Stage Agreement

begin a stage

have built the plan

we have verbal agreements from resourceowning managers

People have an amazing ability to 'forget' what

they promised verballyPut it in writing in a Stage Agreement and getresource owning managers to sign it.



It's easy for a senior manager who sits atop anempire of 300 people to promise the 6 peoplea project manager wants.

Before the project manager commits he mustbe confident that the resources he needs willbe available



G etting the IT team members committed tothe project is relatively easy: they exist to doprojects.It is usually much harder to get business users'time committed to the project: they've gotother things to do like run the business.



A stage agreement is first and foremost anagreement between the project manager andthose who must provide resources for aproject stage.

Stage agreements also help resource owningline managers.



A stage agreement should be no more than 2 or 3pages and should contain:Distribution list

±

resource owners for sign off ± others for information

Description of stageDeliverables from stage and who will sign off to

accept themCompletion criteria: how we will know that thestage has finished



Success criteria: how we will know whetherthe stage was successful

Roles and responsibilities, including juniorroles that will not appear in the PDD

Risks that threaten the success of this stageand how they will be managed

Resources needed for this stage



Cost of this stageKey milestone dates (one every 2 or 3 weeks)

Management and reporting: how change willbe controlled, progress reported, etc.Quality plan: how the quality of the stagedeliverables will be assured

Outlook for later stages: indication of resources that might be needed forsubsequent stages



Let's write a stage agreement for Stage1 of the project on the right.

Stage Agreement for Stage 1 of Project XYZ1. Distribution

G Smith (HR manager) for resource sign off 0J Jones (Marketing manager) for resource signoff B G ates ( IT manager) for resource sign off R J Patel ( IT infrastructure manager)Steering committee members for informationProject role holders and team members forinformation



2 . Description of stageThis is Stage 1 of project xyz and it comprises

requirements analysis and user functionsdesign.



3 . Deliverables and sign off Requirements document April 10th

± to be signed off by G Smith, J Jones and R James (projectuser manager) by April 24th

User Functions Design document May 14th ± to be signed off by G Smith, J Jones, R James and R J Patel

by May 28thStage 2 plan and stage agreement May 14th

±

to be signed off by resource owners (to be identified byMay 1st)Stage 1 completion report May 28th

± to be signed off by H E G oodboss May 28th



4 . Stage completion criteria

Above sign offs achieved

Sponsor sign off to concur that stage hascompleted



5 . Stage success criteria

All issues resolved within 14 days of

documents being published and sign offsachieved as scheduled.



5 . Roles and responsibilities

Sponsor: I Topman (Director, Operations)

Steering Committee:Ivan Empire (MarketingDirector), J G oodheart (HR Director)

Project Manager: H. E. G oodboss

Project User Manager: R. James

Requirements Team Leader: P. D. Q. Finklestein

Design Team Leader: P Boseman



6 . RisksA full risk register for Stage 1 and for the whole project canbe found at www.ourco.xyz.risks.htm. The main risksthreatening the success of this stage are:

Lack of user resources: ± written resource commitments are sought via this document ± the sponsor has agreed personally to intervene should resource

owners in the event be unable to fulfil their commitmentsLack of office space where the team can be co-located:

± Jason Fixit (Facilities Manager) is pursuing a refit of the oldcanteen for our use

± In the meantime the team will use the Executive Board Room



7 . Resources needed for this stageThe attached week by week, person by person plan shows precisely who isneeded and when. In summary, resource owners will supply the following:G Smith 2 people full time March 1 - May 28J Jones 1 person on a one week on, one week off basis starting March 1and ending April 20 (see plan for details)B G ates 1 person March 1 - May 28, second person April 10 - May 28.These two will continue through to the end of Stage 2 (which is the end of the project which we hope will be October 30th) as development teamleaders.Project Support will conduct a Health Check around the end of April. ( This

is included in project support's plan which has been committed to theExec.)R Patel has committed to make the development environment available byJune 10th. Although this date falls after the end of Stage 1, commitment issought now due to its criticality.



9 . Key datesThe attached plan shows milestones in red. The major milestonesare:Stage start: March 1st

Requirements workshops completed: March 30th.Requirements document published: April 10th.Requirements document signed off: April 24th.Design simulation completed: May 12th.Design document published: May 14th.

Plan and agreement for Stage 2 completed: May 14th. (And Stage 2starts on May 14th.)Design signed off, all Stage 1 deliverables signed off, Stage 1 end:May 28th.



10. Management, reporting and communicationsweekly team meetings run by team leadersweekly reporting by team leaders to PM (Mondays)fortnightly reporting by PM to sponsorreporting pro formas can be viewed atwww.ourco.xyz.reps.htmissue and change management will be handled personallyby the PM given the tight timescales. Procedures and formsat www.ourco.xyz.issue_pcr.htmrisks will be reviewed in weekly meetings. The project riskprocedure and risk register is at www.ourco.xyz.risks.htm



11. Quality managementThe requirements document will be fullyinspected by relevant user personnel (see

attached plan that shows inspection meetingdates and attendees).The UFD design document will be inspected and a3 day simulation will be conducted.

Our quality processes are documented atwww.ourco.xyz.quality.htm and are almost adirect copy of those used by J. Clever on therecent rxt project (thank you, John).

stage agreement

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