Collective Wisdom from the Experts 99
• The importance of each team member’s individual participation on the
project, which includes assisting with the development of the project plan.
• Project risks—what they are, how to identify them, and how to create and
monitor plans to avoid, mitigate, or respond to them.
• Tasks needing further breakdown to define the work to be completed by
each member of the team.
• Task assignments, scheduled completion dates, interdependencies of the
tasks for the entire team, and the project manager’s role in following up to
ensure timely completion of the assignments.
• Possible task completion delays, impediments to completing tasks in a
timely manner, and the PM’s role to assist with removing roadblocks.
• Communications plans, team member communication responsibilities,
and the PM’s role as focal point in coordinating plan details.
• Project status meeting responsibilities and schedules.
• Outline of next steps you plan to perform as PM as the project plan
unfolds.Unless your organization is a “mature” project-oriented business, adding an
overview of the basic PM concepts at the beginning of all projects is critical to
assist team members in understanding the full extent of their responsibilities
and the details of their support structure. This includes laying out your role as
their software project manager.