Formal, Written Sign Off: A Simple & Powerful PM Tool

Posted by Michael Greer on Nov 20, 2021 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

A few years ago I was contracted to build a two-week long technical course for a major high-tech client. A fairly large effort, our project’s finished deliverables included self-study materials, job aids, studio-produced video case study scenarios and instructor guides — in short, we were building a complete, integrated training system with a lot of moving parts. My team of independent contractors consisted of five training developers (instructional designers), a print production coordinator and a video production subcontractor.* After several difficult weeks of interviewing the client’s in-house SMEs, gathering information, brainstorming and welding together a cohesive course design, we rolled out our first major deliverable, our Blueprint (an integrated training design plan).  My contract stipulated that our Blueprint would be formally approved by the client, in writing, before we moved on to the next phase, which would be developing our fully fleshed-out first drafts of all materials and video scripts. Love Is In The Air! … Maybe …  On Blueprint approval day we sat down with our client project representative, a big, friendly bear of a guy who had been truly supportive of all our efforts. One by one each designer presented his or her portion of the Blueprint, while the the video producer presented the treatments for the matching scenarios. The client was delighted!  After each team member’s presentation, he praised their work, noting his appreciation of specific challenges they had overcome or creative leaps they had made.

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Formal, Written Sign Off: A Simple & Powerful PM Tool