[council] EPDP-Phase 2 Project Management and Work Plan Package

Tue Aug 13 23:51:05 UTC 2019

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
<https://community.icann.org/display/EOTSFGRD/2019-08-13+EPDP-+Phase+2+call+%2313>
.

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
   <https://community.icann.org/x/6BdIBg>. 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
   <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/179ocCF6XHK48CJaFF4Rdg9T3atQKFeY51zwF6rfQ4Jw/edit#gid=126973602>
   .

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
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