Dear councilors,

 

A reminder to please submit input on the EPDP Phase 2 Project Management and Work Plan Package at your earliest convenience.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nathalie

 

From: council <council-bounces@gnso.icann.org> on behalf of "rafik.dammak@gmail.com" <rafik.dammak@gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, August 14, 2019 at 1:51 AM
To: "council@gnso.icann.org" <council@gnso.icann.org>
Subject: [council] EPDP-Phase 2 Project Management and Work Plan Package

 

Dear GNSO Council Members,

Please find attach the EPDP-Phase 2 project and work plan package that outlines the group’s key deliverables and milestones. Apologies up front for the large number of documents contained in the package, but each one plays a distinct role in managing and communicating the status and condition of this project.

Below is brief highlight of each of the work products contained within the package. The full substance of project plan can be found on page 4. In short, the EPDP-P2 team targets early December 2019 to deliver an Initial Report for public comment, and shortly after ICANN67 (Cancun) the group plans to deliver its Final Report. This package was reviewed 13 August with the EPDP and if you prefer an in-depth briefing, the recording is now available.

While the GNSO Council, as normal procedure, adopts a group’s charter before initiating policy deliberations, to our knowledge, this is the first time the GNSO Council will approve a detailed plan like what is attached here for the EPDP. This is largely due to the fact that this is also the first policy development process executed that is funded separately from ICANN’s Contingency fund and therefore the extra procedures and attention. The Council’s adoption of this plan is a crucial step by which the GNSO Council can request additional dedicated resources required to complete the Phase 2 effort. Very much like Phase 1, the Phase 2 EPDP will request additional resources to complete the formal request from the ICANN Board. You will recall two such interim requests made in April and June of 2019. Shortly after the Council’s approval of this plan, the resource request to the Board will be initiated and details of that request will be supplied at that time. We are targeting the 22 Aug 2019 Council meeting to obtain approval of the plan. It should be noted however, that the EPDP-P2 leadership team will reassess the project plan based on outcomes of the Los Angeles face-to-face in early September.

One final thing to consider when reviewing the plan at a high-level and as communicated in Marrakech, an aspirational target was set for Dec 2019 to launch an Initial Report for public comment. You’ll see this represented in the work products that make up this package. Berry would like to reinforce the notion that this plan attempts to allocate tasks based on the number of hours it takes for the group to deliberate the policy topics and agree on some sort of outcome. While the project plan is represented on a 5 business day work week, in reality that only translates to 4 or 6 hours of conference calls per week. So, it is important to think of tasks being resourced in those terms instead of being driven only by calendar dates. As an example and assuming we do not take any breaks, considering plenary calls are 2 hours and secondary/legal calls are 1.5 hours, and finally considering total hours for the face-to-face in LA, it only equates to a total of 38 hours to deliberate topics verbally through 11 September 2019. That’s less than one business week assuming that it could be condensed into a single week.

EPDP-P2 Project and Work Plan Package:

  • The general intent is this will be compiled and reviewed once per month in preparation for EPDP planning/progress, but also to prepare for updates required by the GNSO Council. Individual work products will be updated more frequently and as necessary by the EPDP leadership team to meet the project communication and planning requirements.
  • Page 1 - a high-level, simple Gantt view of key deliverable dates for the primary phases of the project including engagement opportunities such as ICANN meetings or dedicated face-to-face sessions. The summary timeline will typically be presented on a rolling twelve months and updated monthly.
  • Page 2- this Fact Sheet work product is primarily used for projects with dedicated funds and acts as an overall communications vehicle. It displays the status, activities, milestone completion, and a summary of the financial resources. The project leadership team, as well as the Project Cost Support Team will manage and update the Fact Sheet with the assistance of staff. The milestones section, such as the % complete, will be derived from the four primary phases of the project plan Gantt chart.
  • Page 3 – Project SitRep, this work product is a copy of the project document presented in the GNSO Council’s Project List to enhance status reporting consistency to broader GNSO. It contains the project summary, scope, composition, summary, and deliverables/milestones. The lower section describes in more detail the current, planned, and completed tasks. The Status and Condition codes are the primary feature, and it’s complemented by an escalation process (described later) where At-Risk or In-Trouble projects can be properly managed.
  • Page 4 – Collapsed version of the Gantt Project Plan; a full expanded version of the plan can be found on the EPDP’s wiki page. The Gantt is a detailed view of the project’s tasks and deliverables from beginning to end. The project typically begins with the adoption of a group’s charter that contains all detailed tasks to be accomplished in between major milestones in a manner that also identifies dependencies and duration of each task. The Gantt chart is an effective tool to demonstrate impacts should key deliverable dates be missed that may impact the critical path and downstream tasks or deliverables.
  • Page 5 – is screen print of the work plan and action items. this work product presents a tactical view of the tasks and deliverables for the group. Unlike the Gantt, it takes a simple form of a table listing the task, who is assigned, when it was assigned, due dates, and notes related to the task. In most cases, this should only contain those activities that occur the next several weeks and no longer than two months as to maintain focus on the current tasks. It will be updated each week with the tasks from the project plan. This work product now resides on Google Sheets [docs.google.com].

Enjoy the review of the project package and staff is happy to answer any questions over the list in the meantime. 

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Rafik Dammak