Align the buying team
Align your core buying team through a kick-off workshop.
Hold a buying team kick-off workshop
The buying team should understand the project at this point, and be ready to find the best ways to work together.
This third mobilisation milestone involves engaging subject-matter experts (SMEs), holding a kick-off workshop to define your ways of working, governance, and reporting structures (estimated 1 - 2 hours*).
*Duration will vary with project complexity and resource availability.
Complete the last mobilisation milestone through a workshop to establish the process and practices that will drive project success. This milestone is about ensuring the effectiveness, sustainability, and transparency of your work.
Success for ‘align the buying team’ milestone looks like:
- documentation of the work you’ve proposed, as a single source of truth
- project management plan
- key stakeholder roles, accountabilities, responsibilities, and people captured in a RACI matrix
- approach, deliverables, milestones and timelines established
- meeting cadence agreed
- tools and ways of working agreed
- risk and controls identified.
Who to involve in this milestone
Expand the headings below to read more about how this guide supports each of the roles involved in this milestone.
This guide supports buyers, product owners or project managers to conduct a core team mobilisation workshop that aligns core team on:
- the business objective, desired business outcome, milestones and timelines
- align the core team on expectations, deliverables, ways of working, tools and cadence
- align on RACI stakeholders, roles and responsibilities
- identify additional key subject-matter experts (SMEs)
- uncover assumptions, questions, gaps and risk mitigants.
Learn more about buying project stakeholder roles.
This guide supports procurement officers to conduct a core team mobilisation workshop that aligns core team on:
- the business objective, desired business outcome, milestones and timelines
- align the core team on expectations, deliverables, ways of working, tools and cadence
- align on RACI stakeholders, roles and responsibilities
- identify additional key subject-matter experts (SMEs)
- uncover assumptions, questions, gaps and risk mitigants.
Learn more about buying project stakeholder roles.
Core team subject-matter experts (SMEs) may include ICT, digital, risk, innovation, probity and/or legal stakeholder roles. SMEs should:
- contribute to the core team mobilisation workshop
- understand the business objective and desired business outcome, anticipated stages, activities and timelines
- agree to ways of working and cadence
- contribute to a RACI that identifies the key project stakeholders, roles and responsibilities
- identify other key subject-matter experts (SMEs) that should be engaged
- identify approvers
- identify gaps and risk mitigants
- challenge assumptions, and ask questions.
Tips for aligning your team
A foundational kick off session is a great way to initiate a buying project. Consider the top five tips to align cross functional teams listed below:
Aligning your buying team begins with establishing and articulating the outcome you want to achieve, and your business objectives. The goal is to translate how the overall NSW Government priorities apply to the buying team and individuals in it.
Sketch out different roles in the team and establish how they contribute to the team vision.
Promote collaborative teams. Reward teamwork and encourage trust and accountability among team members. Business interests should be represented on all engagements.
Recognise individuals regularly, encourage peer to peer recognition and host celebrations of success. When recognising individuals and team accomplishments, tie them to wider organisational strategies to drive home the impact they have on NSW Government purpose.
Build the right processes and implement the right tools for team alignment to thrive. Using a collaborative planning process can help you get all the information you need to combine bottom-up tactical planning with top-down strategy. Involving teams early on will help you with engagement and close the communication gap between leadership, key stakeholders, subject-matter experts (SMEs), and buying teams.
Kick-off workshop templates
Find below resources to support you to conduct mobilisation kick-offs.
As these resources are undergoing testing, they are available on request for guided use along with the Innovation Procurement advisory team. This ensures that the guides can tailor to project needs and incorporate any improvements.
To access the mobilisation workshop guide and template resources, or if you need help to make your workshop more accessible, or engage resources to lead this activity, please contact the innovation procurement advisory team at InnovationProcurement@customerservice.nsw.gov.au. If you have any trouble accessing a file or document on this page, you can request an accessible version from the same email address.
Mobilisation kick-off template 1: ways of working
Estimated 20 mins (duration will vary with project complexity and resource availability).
Agenda
- set overall expectations for team members
- what tools will we use to collaborate effectively
- agree cadence, key dates and ceremonies.
Resources
Mobilisation kick-off template 2: team charter
Estimated 20 mins (duration will vary with project complexity and resource availability).
Agenda
- how to get the most from each other
- what team members expect of each other to become a successful team
- what could prevent the team from reaching its goal
- what will team members do when things go wrong.
Resources
Mobilisation kick-off template 3: roles, responsibilities, key tasks and time committed
Estimated 20 - 30 mins (duration will vary with project complexity and resource availability).
Agenda
- RACI updated from Milestone 1 Template 3
- key stakeholder gaps identified
- team member roles, key tasks, and time committed to the project socialised
- key resource/skill gaps identified.
Resources
Mobilisation kick-off project roles and responsibilities template.
Learn more about the types of SMEs, and how they contribute to the success of the buying project.
Mobilisation kick-off template 4: risks, assumptions, and questions
Estimated 20 - 30 mins (duration will vary with project complexity and resource availability).
Agenda
- set overall expectations for team members
- what tools will we use to collaborate effectively
- agree cadence, key dates, and ceremonies.
Resources
Mobilisation kick-off risk mitigants, assumptions, and questions template.
Next mobilisation milestone
Now it’s time to undertake innovation scoping, define the challenge statement, and start work on the documentation and approval of the Statement of Requirements, the Briefing Note, and the Procurement Strategy and Plan.