This week my tweets @tprusk1 looked at two important project initiation steps, the kickoff meeting and the initial sponsor meeting. Here is a compilation of all of them in case you missed any.

The initial project sponsor meeting should be the first priority. This should be a one on one meeting between the PM and the sponsor. The number one goal of the sponsor meeting is to understand the sponsors expectations and success factors for the project. Additional topics for the sponsor mtg are: escalation method, freq of mtgs, participation in kickoff and other mtgs & Sponsor's key contact.

If planned well the initial sponsor meeting should take 30 minutes. Future meetings can be 15 - 30 min depending on subject discussed.

The project kick off meeting is your first opportunity to set the right tone and tenor for the project. Do not underestimate its importance. Although it is important to have the kickoff meeting early in the project don't rush it if you are not ready.The project kickoff meeting should be a formal meeting with an agenda and follow ups assigned. Send the agenda out in advance. The kickoff meeting is not the same as a regular status meeting so having a larger audience including business owners, SMEs, managers is ok. Have the sponsor attend and talk about the business value of the project. This sets a great target for the team.

Next week we will discuss additional project initiation tasks.