It helps the participants have a better understanding of the activities and the whole process if you let them discover the activities instead of just telling them what has to be done.
The following parts of the workshop have activity discovery:
- Part 2: Project initiation activities
- Part 3: Monthly initiation, weekly and daily management, and monthly closure activities
- Part 4: Project closure activities
- Part 5: Post-project management activities
This page explains how to discover the activities in each of those parts.
S1 - Explain the purpose
First, remind them of the purpose of the activity group:
- Face-to-face: Put a large sheet of paper on the wall, write the name of the activity group on top and the purpose below it. Later, you’ll add the activities on sticky notes onto this paper.
- Online: Add two nodes below the activity group’s node: one titled purpose and the other activities. Write down the purpose and leave it open for them to see.
S2 - Collect ideas
Ask them to think about the management activities they will find necessary or helpful for this group. Remind them to write down the items briefly and clearly. Tell them that they don’t need to worry about adding duplicate items, but encourage them to check other participants' items because it may inspire them to come up with additional ideas. Note that this exercise is done individually, not in teams.
To capture the ideas:
- Face-to-face: Ask the participants to write down the items on sticky notes (one item per sticky note) and put them on the board. Encourage them to walk around the room and manage the notes themselves to keep them more active and energetic.
- Online: Ask the participants to write down the items in the public chat panel, each item on a separate line. At the end, copy all the ideas from the chat panel and paste them into your mind map, underneath the Project Initiation > Activities node.
Usually, 2 to 3 minutes is enough for this task, but you don’t have to give them a limited time; instead, watch their interactions, and as soon as you feel that they’re reaching the end, give them 30 seconds to finish up.
You can expect to receive 10 to 40 items at the end of this round.
S3 - Organize the ideas
Go through the items and organize them:
- When there are duplicates, pick one and move the rest underneath it.
- Face-to-face: Stack the cards and put the selected item on top.
- Online: Move the other items underneath the selected item and collapse it.
- If something doesn’t belong to the current activity group, move it to the next activity group. Depending on the nature of the item, either explain why it has to be done later or simply let them know that you will discuss it later.
At this point, you will probably have 5 to 20 activities. You don’t need to create a one-to-one mapping between their items and P3.express activities at the beginning – it’s best to do it gradually.
S4 - Order the items
Skip ordering for the daily management activities (as they don’t have an order). For the other groups, select one of the existing activity ideas that belongs to the middle of the activity group. Then, ask the participants if it’s possible to do it immediately at the beginning, and if not, what has to be done before it. Track those predecessors back until you reach the first activity, and add the missing activities along the way. While doing it, adjust the order of activities on the board or mind map.
S5 - Link to P3.express
When ordering is complete, change the name of each item into the corresponding P3.express activity name.