Templates
Purpose
Templates allow us, as a practice area, to deliver consistency across projects. Those included are commonly used by Project Managers throughout the life of a project. All of the templates are stored within the CivicActions Project Management Folder. Given the ongoing improvements of our team, this page is dynamic.
Budget impact
If a project requires additional resourcing, i.e., for a work surge or else to support CivicActions as a whole, then we have a template for awareness.
How? Use Slack, the project Core channel, and this framework, requesting alignment and opening it for questions:
- Rationale for adding/increasing resourcing
- Impact to financial health (i.e., the effective rate is predicted to be $X for Y months)
- Expected duration
- Please CC Alaine, Elizabeth and Bill
Budget tracking
Budget is commonly a part of weekly or monthly reporting. A few options are included:
Client change request
Some project contracts require formal change requests when modifying key personnel, deliverables, budget, etc. This template helps to initiate change with the contracting officer representative (COR).
Client Integrated Project Plan (IPP)
If an Integrated Project Plan (IPP) is required, this template is a good starting point for learning.
Client Integrated Project Plan
CPAR
Thanks to Program Management, and working in conjunction with them and Sales, these CPAR templates allows CivicActions the ability to deliver scoring feedback/ requests for improvement.
Decision log
A Decision log is required on all projects, with this template as an example.
Incident Response (aka Remediation Brief)
If any issue occurs on a Production environment, especially anything that is in conflict with established SLAs, then an Incident Response is advised.
Incident Response instructions for Project Managers
Kickoff agenda
This template is used as a preliminary guide when beginning a project. Key points are provided to ensure clear expectations - for all participating parties - are addressed.
Kickoff deck
This deck serves as a starting place for all key topics on any Kickoff call.
Meeting notes
Used as a guide for Project Managers when facilitating daily scrum calls; the team can decide the desired format.
Mod/ Pricing justification
Another template requiring close collaboration with Program Management and Sales (and often Legal), this template serves to document, prior to a new Option Year, any forecasted funding gaps.
Mod/ Pricing justification: Another option
Monthly/ Bi-Weekly/ Weekly status report
A guiding document to build status reports within CivicActions branding.
Out of Office (OOO) coverage
A few templates that support Project Managers and team members for OOO planning and returning.
Project Managers
Returning Project Manager/ handoff
Team members
Reminder about Out of Office (OOO) procedure
Production users
To maintain the integrity of all Production systems, this template is an efficient way to track access rights for quarterly reviews.
Project brief (aka Onboarding deck)
All projects intend to have an Onboarding deck for both CivicActions and partners, with the purpose of providing an overarching view of the projects.
Project contacts
This template is useful for projects that have a large stakeholder team or when the project team has a partner.
Project and Product Management hacks for designers
A great resource that explains project and product management duties to the team and the wider CivicActions community.
Project and Product Management hacks
Quarterly high-level accomplishments
Another useful template from Program Management, shared with the practice area. The objective is to tie into bi-weekly and monthly reporting, consolidating the total value delivered to the client.
Quarterly high level accomplishments
Risk ledger
This template is used as a guide for Project Managers to track all project risks. This log is also required on all projects.
Team Working Agreement
A template that allows teams to unite around their core tenets. See instructions for Project Managers.
Wrapper/ Legal
A template is required for each project and is managed by our Legal team. This is updated quarterly to confirm alignment with all current contract details. Once completed, the Legal Wrapper is owned by our Legal team, retained in their folders, and is read-only. It is transparent, however, for all of CivicActions via the Client Contract Index.
Wrapper/ Project Management
The companion to the Legal Wrapper, with all details needed for the Project Manager. This is also updated quarterly to confirm current contact details are accurate.
Once completed, the Project Management Wrapper is owned by our practice area, and retained in the project Internal folder/ Wrapper. The Wrappers are transparent for all of CivicActions, unless prohibited by contractual specifications, via the Shared Folder shortcuts.