Implementation Design Review

Statement of Work Review Meeting

Purpose

The purpose of the Statement of Work Review Meeting is to get the team comfortable with the project’s scope (the ‘What’). By reading through each requirement and opening the floor for questions and discussion, participants should think about:

  • Gaps in the SOW - Determine whether further clarification is required from the PM or the customer.

  • Important context - There may be important context that needs to be communicated from the PM to the team derived from project scoping, which may not be explicitly described in the Statement of Work document.

  • Project constraints - Every project is constrained by a budget and a delivery timeline, which should be communicated and understood by all team members as they begin the process of planning.

Key Roles

Project Manager: Schedule and lead the meeting, record any unanswered questions

Project Implementers: Participate in review, ask questions

Design Brainstorming Session

Purpose

The purpose of the Design Brainstorming Session is for the project implementation team to determine How to deliver on the project’s requirements. Prior to the call, the Project Manager should ensure that they have answers to any questions that arose during the Statement of Work Review Meeting. The implementation team should be prepared to share their ideas for:

  • Overall Architecture of the Implementation - Following the meeting, the project’s lead will be tasked with writing a Project Design Document. Discussion should focus on gathering the information required to complete this document, and most time should be spent on the aspects of the design that are not straightforward.

  • Resource Allocation - As our teams are cross-functional, determining Who should be tasked with _What _should be considered. If there are gaps in resource capabilities, the PM should consider amending the team to improve coverage. *Note: tasking at this stage is high-level and concerned with matching the design with domain-specific skills

Key Roles

Project Manager: Schedule and lead the meeting, record any decisions

Project Implementers: Participate in review, ask questions

Documenting the Design

Purpose

The purpose of documenting the design is to communicate a concrete vision of the project implementation to all members of the project’s implementation team, the product engineering team, and to management. The design will be presented at the Design Review Meeting.

The project’s design and architecture should be documented by the project’s lead developer, based on the decisions made in the Design Brainstorming Session. They should ensure there is buy-in on the design from all members of the project’s implementation team. The design should answer questions and provide descriptions as laid out in the Project Design Document (given below).

Key Roles

Project Lead Developer: Create the Project Design Document in consultation with the project’s implementation team

Project Implementers: Consult with the Project’s Lead Developer to to complete the Project Design Document

Design Review Meeting

Purpose

The purpose of the design review meeting is to communicate the intended design for the implementation to the services and engineering teams for scrutiny. Meeting participants should provide constructive feedback on possible design improvements to ensure that best practices are being followed and the product is being used as optimally as possible. As a byproduct, the engineering team will gain a better understanding of how the product is being used in the wild, which can inform their design decisions going forward.

Decisions should be recorded and incorporated into the design document by the project's lead architect.

Key Roles

Project Manager: Schedule and lead the meeting, record any decisions Project Implementers: Participate in review, answer questions, make adjustments to the design as needed per decisions arrived at in the meeting Product Engineering Representative(s): Review the presented design and provide advice from the perspective of best practices vis-a-vis the current product capabilities.

Project Design Document

(Attached)

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