3.2.6. Key Project Artifacts: Part 2

💡 First Principle: Clear definitions and formal agreements are critical artifacts for establishing shared understanding, ensuring quality, and managing external relationships.

Scenario: To ensure consistent quality, a development team creates a 'Definition of Done (DoD)' checklist that every user story must meet. Before starting work, they check items against a 'Definition of Ready (DoR)'. For a major procurement, the project manager uses formal 'Bid Documents' and a 'Project Charter' to authorize the work.

Continuing with important project artifacts related to definitions, procurement, and formal documentation.

• Definition of Done (DoD): Checklist defining criteria for a work item to be considered complete.
• Definition of Ready (DoR): Checklist defining criteria for a backlog item to be ready for the team to start work.
• Contracts / Bid Documents: Formal agreements and requests related to procurement.
• Status Reports: Documents communicating project progress, performance, and issues.
• Project Charter: Document formally authorizing the project and outlining high-level objectives.
• Issue Log / Change Log: Lists tracking project issues or change requests and their status.
• Stakeholder Register / Assumption Log: Lists identifying stakeholders or tracking project assumptions.

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Having a weak or inconsistent 'Definition of Done'. This leads to rework, integration problems, and disagreements about whether work is truly complete.

Key Trade-Offs:

• Formality (Project Charter) vs. Agility: While a formal charter might seem bureaucratic, it serves the critical purpose of aligning key stakeholders and formally authorizing the project leader to use organizational resources, which is valuable in any lifecycle.

Reflection Question: What is the relationship between an 'Assumption Log' and a 'Risk Register'? How do they inform each other?