The success of a project depends on several factors. At the center of all these lies project meetings. Since the purpose of these meetings is to determine how the project goes, it has a huge impact on the project itself.
For one, it can help the team know what to deliver and address any concerns they have. In addition, it helps project managers ascertain the team’s progress. So, in short, project meetings are essential to a firm. However, the success of a project meeting depends on its agenda. Yes, the project meeting agenda is equally vital. But what should it look like?
This post focuses on the project meeting agenda and provides some tips on creating a meeting agenda relevant to the project.
What is the Project Meeting Agenda?
The Project meeting agenda dictates the course of a meeting consisting of either the project team or all stakeholders. In other words, it’s the program stating the items that need to be discussed.
A good project meeting agenda will lead to a well-planned meeting that covers all needed points, thus helping the project progress. But when it comes to creating a meeting agenda, it sometimes becomes a challenge. One might ask: “what should it look like?”
Well, to see what a good project meeting agenda looks like, let’s see what a bad one contains first:
- Vague objectives
- Unrealistic expectations of the meeting
- Lack of time management
- Too many topics
- Excessive length
With that, a good project meeting agenda should contain clearly defined objectives, allocated time, realistic expectations, proper length, and only a few urgent topics. With these in mind, a template for a good project meeting agenda may include the following points:
- Introduction
- Review of the previous meeting
- Current meeting’s objectives
- Agenda items (topics to be discussed)
- A discussion part (where team members address each others’ questions)
- Review of the meeting (may include highlights of the key points and tasks to be completed before the next meeting)
- Conclusion
Remember to specify the time for each part of the meeting agenda and include the date, time, and location of the meeting. Once done, you’ll be able to create a good project meeting agenda template.
To access ready-made templates, you can decide to use PM tools. ClickUp, for one, offers different templates for your project meetings.
Now that you’ve gotten your template, the question is “How do you decide the agenda items?” Here are three tips that can help.
3 Tips to Create an Efficient Project Meeting Agenda
- Identify the Purpose of the Meeting:There are several types of project meetings. From project planning to kick-off meetings, there are different reasons why a team may decide to meet together. As the project manager, you need to understand the purpose of the gathering.
- Allocate Time Properly: Once again, you need to allocate time wisely. A common reason for meeting failures is poor time management. And that’s no wonder. Members become worn-out and the meeting loses its purpose.
- Keep the Team in Mind: A project meeting where team members are inactive is futile. This is especially true for planning, kick-off, and status meetings. Your team members need to be active participants in the meeting. Hence, a discussion part where they can voice their opinion is necessary.
Bottom Line on the Project Meeting Agenda
Creating a good project meeting agenda may seem tasking at first, but it’s not. Once you know your team’s needs and the purpose of the meeting, you can start working on a meeting agenda that will cover all necessary points. And with a template by your side, you can easily organize the meeting agenda.
Remember, a good agenda is necessary for a successful project meeting. And in turn, a successful project meeting is essential to achieve project success. To that end, start working on your project meeting agenda today.
