---
title: Create a common understanding
acode: A4
---

The person wearing the *Project Manager* hat helps all the team members to collaborate and reach a common understanding of the project. This understanding will serve as the foundation of future efforts and as a high-level plan that guides the way.

2:: What's the reason for doing this project?
2:: What are the benefits and disbenefits of the project?
2:: Approximately how much money do we need to finish the project?
2:: What are the investment risks?
4:: What are the expected results from the project's output?
4:: What are the customer and end-user needs and expectations?
4:: What are the risks related to users and the customer?
3:: What will the project's output look like behind the scenes?
3:: Approximately how much time do we need to create the project's output?
3:: What are the production risks?
1:: Who can impact the project (stakeholders)?
1:: What are the risks related to how we work?
1:: Have all the hat-wearers been involved in creating a common understanding?

A digital or physical *Integrated Project Board* should be created to record the information, with status columns such as "queued", "on-hold", "in-progress", "to-review", and "closed" for the *deliverables* and *follow-up items* (risks, issues, etc.). In addition to the said status columns, there should be a "project description" column with the following meta-cards:

* Why this project?
* Requirements and expectations
* Targets and forecasts
* Stakeholders
* General acceptance criteria [optional]

{{< mp3v1-project-board A3 >}}

You should identify all the high-level and medium-level deliverables at this point to create a better understanding of the project. However, if the project is exploratory, it's better to limit this activity to key, high-level deliverables and break them down later.

In complicated micro-projects, you can use a *Deliverables Map* to facilitate the identification of deliverables. To do so, you can use a mind map to break down the final output of the project into its major deliverables, then each of those into smaller ones, and so on for a few levels deeper until you reach an appropriate level of detail for your project.

There's another important concern as well:

1:: Are the documents clear and easy to understand?


