Chapter 5 Flashcards — Leading Big Projects
flashcards tsep project-leadership raci rfc anchor-doc
What are the five tactics for handling initial overwhelm when taking on a large project?
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- Get an anchor document — start writing immediately; forces clarity even before you have answers
- Talk to your sponsor — understand what success and failure look like for them; confirm available resources
- Find a sounding board — 1–2 people you can think out loud with honestly; not the same as a mentor
- Give yourself a win — accomplish something small and concrete in the first week to shift from overwhelmed to making-progress
- Use your strengths — in the early ambiguous phase, build momentum from what you’re already good at
What eight categories of context should you build before planning a large project?
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- Goals — what are we trying to achieve; what does success look like
- Customer needs — who depends on the outcome; what do they actually care about
- Success metrics — measurable outcomes that verify it worked
- Sponsors — who has given organizational backing; what do they need
- Constraints — non-negotiable deadlines, budget limits, what can’t change
- Risks — what could go wrong; what are the biggest unknowns
- History — what has been tried before; why it stopped
- Team — who is involved; what do they own; what are their priorities
What does each letter in RACI stand for, and what are the rules?
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- R — Responsible: Does the work (can be multiple people)
- A — Accountable: Owns the outcome (exactly one person per deliverable)
- C — Consulted: Gives input before decisions (two-way communication)
- I — Informed: Gets updates (one-way communication)
Key rules: Only one Accountable per deliverable (otherwise nobody is accountable). Don’t put everything in Consulted (drowns people). Don’t miss key stakeholders entirely.
What is the RFC format and what problem does it solve?
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RFC (Request for Comment) is a design document that separates “here’s a solution” from “let’s decide together.” Structure:
- Problem statement
- Context/background
- Requirements
- Options considered
- Recommendation with rationale
- Open questions (what feedback is sought)
- Decision (filled in after review)
It solves the problem of technical decisions being made informally, poorly documented, and without surfacing alternatives. The RFC creates a record of reasoning that future engineers can understand.
What is the “anchor document” and what does it contain?
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A shared document that serves as the single source of truth for a project: what you know, what you don’t know, what you’re trying to find out, key decisions made, current status, and what’s blocking progress. It starts rough and improves over time. Its purpose is to orient new stakeholders quickly and keep existing ones aligned without constant meetings.
What are the six ongoing activities of driving a large project?
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- Exploring — continuously deepening understanding of the problem; talking to users, reading related docs
- Clarifying — resolving ambiguity before it blocks people; when “X or Y?” arises, investigate and decide
- Designing with RFC — using structured design documents for significant decisions
- Coding — staying involved in the implementation to maintain credibility and unblock critical paths
- Communicating status — regular stakeholder updates covering done, upcoming, blocked, and decisions needed
- Navigating — handling unexpected obstacles, stakeholder conflicts, and changing requirements
Why should a staff engineer write some code on a project they’re leading?
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Writing code on a project you’re leading maintains credibility with the team doing the work, gives you genuine understanding of the real difficulty (not just the theoretical version), lets you unblock critical paths personally, and demonstrates the approach for others to follow. The goal is not to write all the code; the goal is to stay grounded in the actual work rather than becoming a pure coordinator.