Cascading and documented sign offs are core to successful projects.
Talk to any consultant and ask if they have received sign-offs for project deliverables, methodology stages or the project. Most of the time you will hear, “yes”. If you dig deeper and ask to see signed off emails from the sponsor, project manager or key stakeholders, you will probably hear something to the effect that it was a verbal acknowledgement.
Verbal sign-offs don’t hold up when projects go red, or worse.
Cascading and documented sign-offs consist of obtaining email sign-offs first for each deliverable in a stage, then an email sign-off for each stage, and finally a sign-off for the project. In obtaining these sign-offs, you reduce the project risk enormously and more importantly, client satisfaction is high.
The diagram below, is a general example of cascading sign-offs.
What is a deliverable sign-off
- Most documents go through a revision or two with the client. When the deliverable is final, the project manager should email it to the authorized people at the client and in the email ask them to reply with sign-off/approval of the document.
- This email must always have the deliverable attached.
- Once the client replies “I approve or I sign-off”, the project manager must save the email as a PDF and store it within a central server/repository at both the client and within their own company’s drive/server. The PDF is crucial because it will display the timestamp of when the document was sent and when sign off was given.
- The Project Manager should always note the sign-off in the weekly status report.
What is a stage sign-off
- Each deliverable sign-off within a stage, should be used as successive evidence which can be used to support the stage sign-off. This is done by listing the deliverable name, date of sign-off and who signed off within one of the documents listed below. Links to the repository showing the final sign-off emails and the deliverables are excellent ways to display the information.
- Depending upon how your stages are set up, you may already have a document which can be used for a stage sign-off. Some of these documents could include:
- Discovery/Research readout
- All user stories meeting the definition of done
- Final testing results (after defect fixes)
- Go No Go meeting deck
- The project manager should always note the stage sign-off in the weekly status report.
What is a project sign-off
- The stage sign-offs and the deliverable sign-offs should be used as successive evidence to support the project sign-off.
- A best practice is to create a project sign-off document showing the deliverable sign-offs and the stage sign-offs
- Show a list of all deliverables, sign off dates and who signed off.
Sign-offs are key to successful projects and done the right way, will reap dividends for your clients, the project, your staff and your company.