Standard Project Description
Goal of the project comes here
This site is an example of a project description, which can be copied for other project performed by Sustainable Ships. It is a template for other projects, subject to continuous change. This project description is based on the ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ and consists of 5 distinct parts: Desired Result, Guidelines, Resources, Accountability and Consequences. It is supplemented by project management theory from several sources, including best practices of Netflix and Amazon. Find more information in Rule 4.
Terms and conditions of Sustainable Ships applies.
1) Desired Result
Start with the end in mind. Determine what you want to do, not how. Set results, not methods.
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What do you aim to achieve? Visualize the end result. It should be 1 thing only, make it tangible and simple.
For example:
Goal: Tool + Click = Report (link)
We are building 'Spotify for Sustainability', an online marketplace where you can share guides, tools and other services for the maritime industry to help shipowners to decrease their carbon footprint. One of the most important processes we need to develop first however, is the ability to make automated reports based on input provided in an online environment. In other words, a shipowner inputs key parameters on our website and presses 'print/email', after which he gets send an automated report for his vessel (link). We need to develop the basic architecture to handle user input from our website sent to an analysis environment which triggers certain Python code and returns the output to our website.
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What are the deliverables and their requirements?
These can one of the following:
Document (Word file)
Document (PDF)
Presentation (Powerpoint)
Other file or product
There can be multiple deliverables. For example:
Deliverable 1 - ‘ The Product’ defined during opening meeting. Start simple and increase complexity on the go:
Deliverable 2 - A presentation on 15th of December by students.
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What will and can go wrong? Make a post-mortem to determine risks. This is very important to also align expectations of the team.
For example:
Our worst case is to have a product that either does not work or is too complicated (costly) to maintain when you are gone. Another risk is the risk our way of working or group dynamics are bad.
2) Guidelines
Parameters within which you operate and are restricted; Identify where the quicksand is; determine what NOT to do
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What are the main guidelines for this project? These should describe how you work and set the agreements and expectations within the group.
For example:
• Sustainable Ships works with Clear Non-Negotiables.
• Squarespace is the front-office of Sustainable Ships.
• Notion is the back-office of Sustainable Ships.
• Google drive is used to store information and can be considered a synchronized Vault of Notion and Squarespace.
• Slack is used for communication about projects.
• Calling is used for urgent matters, summary of calls to be put on Slack if needed.
• Whatsapp is used for informal communication and memes.
• Treat all information you are provided with as confidential.
• If everything else fails, take matters into your own hands and continue the cause.
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What can you not do? This should describe the restrictions within you need to operate.
Do not share client names, pricing or sensitive information with others (you are an adult, you know when it is sensitive). When in doubt, call Vincent.
NO EMAILING.
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How is communication done? Think about when to meet (weekly, daily or other) and communication media (mail, phone, slack, other).
For example:
We have a 11:15 meeting every Friday on Jitsi. The goal of this weekly is to make sure nothing is stopping you.
An opening meeting in {Location} will be planned.
A midterm will be planned.
Ending presentation is on {Date}.
Slack is used for communication about project.
Calling is used for urgent matters, summary of calls to be put on Slack if needed.
Whatsapp is used for informal communication and memes.
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Perform a stakeholder assessment. Who is working on the project? Wo is your client? Who is the enemy? What do they expect?
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Make a milestone planning, preferably a Gantt chart that shows who will do what and when. When do you need to deliver the end result?
3) Resources
Which resources - human, financial, technical, organizational, knowledge - can you use?
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Besides the stakeholders mapped in the stakeholder mapping, who else can help you with this project?
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What is your budget?
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Are there any databases and/or other experiences within the organization that you can use?
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Which tools can you use to perform your task? These can be open-source as well, like Google or Microsoft Office tools.
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The only limitation is your own imagination. Which other resources do you have at your disposal to achieve your goals?
4) Accountability
Who makes the decisions, how are standards of performance evaluated and under which circumstances is the target reached?
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Determine roles and responsibilities of the project team.
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Most importantly, who is the informed captain in charge?
Anyone capable enough can make type 2 decisions (decisions that are reversible). Only the informed captain can make type 1 decisions.
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How do you ensure project quality? When do you know the project is good?
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This describes how you measure progress, quality and others. Focus on input metrics, not output metrics.
5) Consequences
What will happen - good or bad - as a result of evaluation?
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What happens when we have a good outcome?
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What happens when we have a bad result?
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This describes how the results are measured. so that all parties know when you have a good result, and when you have a bad result Generally speaking, if you do not have a good result according to you metrics, you automatically have a bad result.
Actions, Decisions and Questions
Any remaining actions, decision or questions you might have can be listed here.
Make sure to add a person responsible in the case of actions.
Use the comments below to ask more.