Any suggestions on Initial Project Planning & Kick-Off

Question

<a href="https://www.sdn.sap.comhttp://www.sdn.sap.comhttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/forums">Paul Wilson</a> suggested that we start a series of discussions for the different phases of the SAP OCM process. 
In response to Paul’s suggestion, I am kicking off a thread on this topic.  Others threads on the other phases will follow.
The process steps for Initial Project Planning & Kick-Off from Paul's prior posting are listed below. 
1.1 Initial Project Planning and Kick-Off
1.1.1 Transition from Discovery and Evaluation
1.1.1.2 Review Discovery and Evaluation Documents
1.1.2 Enterprise Strategy Framework
1.1.2.1 Review All Required Strategic Documentation
1.1.2.2 Conduct Executive Workshops
1.1.2.4 Review Workshop Results
1.1.4 Project Charter
1.1.4.6 Develop Organizational Change Strategy
Any suggestions on what has worked well would be appreciated.  Also, feel free to include things that have been tried that were less than successful. 
From a real world perspective, I would be interested in discussing to whom and how Change Strategy has been presented by other OCM Consultants.   I would also be interested in discovering how often OCM Consultants actually conduct Executive Workshops during this phase of the project. 
I am looking forward to learning and sharing with the group.
Caryl Barclay
SAP OCM Change Management Principal

Answer 1

Hi Caryl,
I have not had extensive experience ( >1 ) but heres my input. I may be missing some info but hope this helps someone.
Typically during the project Initiation phase, we work on getting the project charter, business case, Scope Statement, Project plan schedule etc.
So with respect  to OCM, during the prep/initiation/kick off stage -
1) Producing Change Charter – This helps to set the framework for the OCM. The Change Charter sets ambition, scope and initial attributes of the organizational change process for the entire project.
Key Deliverables during this step are  OCM Plan, Purpose and Objectives
2) Business Readiness - provides the decision makers with an initial assessment of the readiness of the business to embark on the project given the scope of change defined in the business case (deliverable from Project Initiation). The assessment comprises a high level view on which stakeholders will be impacted and how dramatic the change is going to be seen from the business organizations side. We would try to include any information on the company's previous change experiences.
Key Deliverables during this step –
a)     Initial impact assessment
b)     Stakeholder map and business readiness. (we would  need to conduct meetings, interview etc )
3) Change Management Organization – Defining change management organization is a very important as it sets the guidelines on how the proj org should be set up to meet the objectives in change charter. It helps to ensure that our leadership forces driving the changes to the business are leveraged to the maximum potential. In addition,  it sets the direction for the OCM team to support the program sponsors and steering committee members in a structured manner.
Key Deliverables during this step Sponsorship Strategy (high level document).
4) Communication plan-  The communication framework defined here will be followed through the project lifecycle. Hence this is a very critical step in the OCM Initial/Kick off Phase.  Typically one would need to identify the target audience and align them with the initial stakeholder mapping/impact assessment, work with the client teams to find out the messaging strategy guidelines if any (if they don’t have then define one), Identify communication feedback loops, and the timeline/key messages for all communications throughout the project.
Key Deliverables :
a)     Communication Plan
b)     Communication Strategy and Framework.
5) Organizational Alignment Strategy - ensures that considerations has been made as regards to how radical changes to processes and organization the program sponsors wants to allow or encourage in order to achieve a coherent design of system, process and organization.  If Organizational Alignment strategy is given low priority, the project team will end up in in-efficient discussions Or some times totally ignores the aspect of organizational alignment with a resulting gap between the system set-up and the processes by which the company is actually run. So, the business will still be operating but will miss out on realizing the full business benefits of the project. O rganizational Alignment Strategy Document is the key deliverable at this point.