When you start working on a large scale project, it is important to identify all the stakeholders and plan your workshops straight away.
In the case of a data centre migration this translates into setting up meetings with teams such as Windows, Unix, Engineering, M&E, Network, Applications, Security etc
Having a clear, brief and straight forward agenda is crucial. The benefits of planning ahead and scripting your meetings are huge: beside making your life easier, this will allow you to deliver quality meetings and save precious time, making sure every aspect is covered.
My advice is to follow a logical structure, including:
- Introduce the project: always assume your audience does not know anything about it
- Impact: explain how the project will affect their team and what is expected from them
- Requirements and deliverables: understand what are their requirements and what you expect from them, take note of any potential risk
- Audit and actions: summarize the key points and send out minutes, including a set of actions with agreed dates
Another good practice, once the first meeting is completed, is to setup bi-weekly meeting series, to check progress and make sure everyone is on track.
Keep it simple, with dates against each action and each stakeholder, and hopefully you will get out of it alive!
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