Session 06: Drafting the Terms
Hey there – welcome to this session of the PM Standards project where I am creating a repository of project management standards for Cryptiquest. In the last session I drafted the instruction portion of the repository (there are three proposed sections: instructions, terms, templates). In this session I will compare the draft of instructions to the needs discussed in the kick-off session.
Note: This session was originally going to be dedicated to ensuring the draft of instructions met the needs established for the project. After conducting that research, I determined that they do and that this session should be dedicated to the next step: drafting the terms.
Since I’m so closely involved with the project management standards I created, I’m a little unsure of what terms need to be explained to those who exist outside my head. I guess I’ll start by listing out all the terms used in the instructions then rate them on how far they deviate from typical usage? I’m winging it here.
For reference to the instructions, here is a link to the last session: Session 05: Drafting Instructions. I’ll start from the top then document all terms as I read through.
- Phase
- Sub-phase
- Needs (creator)
- Ideal Solution
- Limitations
- Unknown
- Scope
- Research
- Goal
- Objective
- Deliverable
- First draft
- Internal Review
- Need-Analysis
- External Review
- Confidant Review
- Second-tier Review
- Publish
- Market Need
- Marketing Materials
- Launch
- Retrospective
- Project Life Cycle
- Issue
- Action Item
- Project Analysis
And here are those terms alphabetized and analyzed (“weird enough” would mean that it is either an uncommon term or has a specific usage):
- Action Item (Weird enough to define)
- Confidant Review (Weird enough to define)
- Creator Needs (Weird enough to define)
- Deliverable (Weird enough to define)
- External Review (Weird enough to define)
First draft (Normal usage)- Goal (Weird enough to define)
- Ideal Solution (Weird enough to define)
- Internal Review (Weird enough to define)
- Issue (Weird enough to define)
- Launch (Weird enough to define)
- Limitations (Weird enough to define)
- Market Need (Weird enough to define)
- Marketing Materials (Weird enough to define)
- Need-Analysis (Weird enough to define)
- Objective (Weird enough to define)
- Phase (Weird enough to define)
- Project Analysis (Weird enough to define)
- Project Life Cycle (Weird enough to define)
- Publish (Weird enough to define)
Research (Normal usage)- Retrospective (Weird enough to define)
- Scope (Weird enough to define)
- Second-tier Review (Weird enough to define)
- Sub-phase (Weird enough to define)
- Unknown (Weird enough to define)
And here are the terms defined:
- Action Item – A task that needs to be done
- Confidant Review – The process wherein confidants review drafted material
- Creator Needs – The reasons that sparked the project or the problems the project is trying to solve
- Deliverable – A product or outcome for the project that requires effort {Might want to change how I use this term as the word “deliverable” is better used to solely define a product of the project; Consider “milestone” or “step” instead}
- External Review – The process wherein people outside of Cryptiquest (including confidants) review the drafted material
- Goal – The high level definition of what the project is planned to produce
- Ideal Solution – A favored solution to the problem if all obstacles (including physics, finances, and resources) were removed
- Internal Review – The process wherein people within Cryptiquest review the drafted material
- Issue – A setback, misstep, or other kind of problem that happened during the project
- Launch – Announcing the finished product to the market
- Limitations – Conditions that set the boundaries of the project
- Market Need – The problem(s) of your target audience that your project solves
- Marketing Materials – The social media posts, advertisements, newsletters or any other material used to announce your project to the target audience
- Need-Analysis – The process of determining the Market Need {I need to rework this in the instructions}
- Objective – A neutral, measurable statement that serves as a measure of the projects’s success
- Phase – A segment of time defined by the type of work performed towards an outcome
- Project Analysis – The process of pausing production to assess whether the project plan is working
- Project Life Cycle – The phases of a project from “kick-off” to “launch” (may include “retrospective”)
- Publish – The process of committing the final draft into the media that will be used for launch
- Retrospective – A document that reviews the result of the project, analyzes the project management process, and prescribes actions to improve future project management processes
- Scope – The boundaries of the project
- Second-tier Review – The process wherein the second draft is reviewed by people new to the content {Consider just calling this Second-draft review or something similar; the people aren’t “second” but the review version is}
Sub-phase – A phase within a phase {Consider trashing this. Despite having done this in the past, this is unnecessary}- Unknowns – Parts of the project that are required to make planning decisions but are not understood
Okay. That’s a good first draft I think. I’ll add the “{curly brace notes}” to the Action Items list and in the next session I’ll draft the templates. See you there.
Action Items
For the Instruction draft:
- Might want to change how I use the term “Deliverable” as it is better used to solely define a product of the project; Consider “milestone” or “step” instead
- I need to rework the Need-Analysis definition in the instructions; the Need-Analysis is the process for discovering the Market Needs
- Rename the “Second-tier Review” to “Second-draft Review” or something similar as it sounds like the people are “second tier” but the intention is that it’s just a review of the second draft
- Get rid of any metion of “sub-phases”