Project Leader Central

Project Planning

Initial client meeting and Work Plan Development 

As you meet with the client to gain a detailed understanding of their organization and consulting needs, use the initial client meeting checklist to refine the project objective and scope and develop the team’s workplan.

Use the work plan template to guide the creation of your team’s work plan. The template includes the key elements of the plan such as project objective, project deliverables, client responsibilities and estimated project schedule. Ask the client to review and revise the works plan as needed. The project leader(s) and the client’s executive director and board chair will sign the final work plan then you will send a signed copy to ACT.

Project Execution

Use these tools and templates to coordinate the ACT team as it executes the work plan.

Project Checklists and Scorecard

The Project Leadership Checklist and the Full Team Project Team Member Checklist contain process-oriented recommendations for project leaders and team members, based on the successful practices of experienced ACT project leaders. The recommendations are grouped by Checkpoints corresponding to the phases of a typical project. The recommendations are not meant to be rules, and they may not apply to every project, every team or every client.

The Project Scorecard is an outcome-oriented tool for evaluating the success of your project at various points during the project lifecycle. It is designed for use by project leaders and team members as an informal guide for “taking the temperature” of the project and looking ahead to the end of the project. ACT recommends that project leaders introduce the Scorecard to their teams at the beginning of projects and use it for self-evaluation by the full team at two or more key points during the project. One way to quickly gather the team members’ input is to ask for a one-to-five finger rating for each of the categories in the Scorecard. Follow this by a team discussion of any categories that are rated low.

Individual and Sub-Team Assignments

The Work Breakdown Template helps the team outline issues, required analysis, data/methodology requirements, responsibilities and deadlines. 

Team Meetings

Use the Meeting Minutes template to help structure and document effective team meetings. ACT offers a limited Zoom conference line (audio or video) which can be reserved for team use. Please email  info@stanfordact.org at least one day in advance to reserve the line and include your team’s name, the date you’re requesting use of the line, and the start and end times of the call. Doodle is a free and easy-to-use tool to help schedule meetings.

Client Presentations

For your convenience, ACT has created several PowerPoint templates to be used for client presentations, as well as a cover page for a written presentation.

Project Completion

Once the ACT project is completed, be sure to send a copy of the final presentation and any other relevant documents to the ACT office. And then celebrate with a meal on ACT! Although originally conceived of for an end-of-project celebration, feel free to use ACT’s offer to reimburse one team meal (up to $25 per team member for lunch and $50 per team member for dinner) any time during the project if you think the team needs a mid-project or near-end project boost. Let the ACT Director know about your expense in advance, save your receipts, and submit a request for reimbursement via our online reimbursement form.

Additional Resources

Project Leader Best Practices

This document, Best Practices of ACT Project Leaders, compiled in early 2012, is a collection of observations, comments and words of advice from experienced ACT Project Leaders. These are not rules. They are not things that work with every team, every client, and every project. Some may even be inconsistent, reflecting the fact that people have differing leadership styles and techniques. However, you may find a few gems here that fit your situation perfectly.

Project Leader Roundtables

ACT project leader roundtables are held periodically and provide a lively forum to discuss project management issues and challenges. Discussion topics have covered all stages of the ACT project. The roundtable meeting notes are a must read for all project leaders.

1. Roundtable I: Uncovering real client issues, keeping team motivated and harmonious

2. Roundtable II: Dealing w/ significant dropouts of volunteers, managing maverick team members, motivating volunteers to dig deeper

3. Roundtable III: How changes in environment affect changes in project, dealing with an Executive Director or Board of Directors who are not fully engaged, redefining a project, coping with logistical challenges

4. Roundtable IV: A variety of challenges that can occur in the final stage of an ACT project, building project leader community, and feedback on the roundtables

5. Roundtable V: Uncovering a client’s real issues early in the project, working with team members/co-leaders/clients whose expectations are different than yours, writing a project work plan and getting buy-in from the client and team members, administrative tips for project leaders.

6. Roundtable VI: The differences between nonprofit and for-profit businesses, why it is important to figure out who the client really is, what are the roles and expectations of team members and of clients, how to lead and motivate teams of volunteers, modifying the project objectives and/or deliverables during the project life, and how to help a client implement recommendations.

7. Roundtable VII: When team members seem out of their element, how to give bad news, how to respectfully disagree within the team, and dealing with a shrinking team.