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Module: Asks & Next Steps

Purpose

This module provides asks, next steps, and decision requirements for stakeholder communications. It includes asks by audience, action items, timeline, and communication plan.

Use in

  • CEO communication (decision requirements)
  • CTO communication (technical approvals)
  • CIO communication (IT resource approvals)
  • Stakeholder emails (action items)
  • Project kickoff meetings

Asks by Audience

CEO

  1. Budget Approval: Approve infrastructure costs (~$334/year) + engineering costs (2 FTE × 3 months) + operations costs (0.5 FTE ongoing) for 2026
  2. Priority Confirmation: Confirm this is a Q1 priority
  3. Executive Sponsor: Designate executive sponsor for cross-functional alignment

Decision Needed By

CIO

  1. Architecture Endorsement: Approve AWS serverless architecture approach

  2. Security Approval: Approve security controls and access model

  3. Resource Allocation:

    • Infrastructure team: 1 week initial + 0.1 FTE ongoing
    • Security team: 1.5 weeks initial + quarterly reviews
    • Operations team: 1 week initial + 0.1 FTE ongoing
  4. Budget Approval: Approve $27.81/month ($334/year) infrastructure costs for current scale

Decision Needed By (2)

February 1, 2026 - To enable Q1 2026 build phase kickoff

CTO

  1. Technical Approach: Approve build (custom ETL) vs. buy (vendor)
  2. Architecture: Approve Bronze/Silver/Gold medallion architecture
  3. Technology Stack: Approve AWS serverless stack (Glue, S3, Athena)
  4. Team Commitment: Approve 2 FTE × 3 months for build phase
  5. Delivery Timeline: Approve 3-month delivery plan

Decision Needed By (3)

February 1, 2026 - To enable Q1 2026 build phase kickoff

Data Staff

  1. Implementation: Execute tasks per timeline (see Data Staff Email)
  2. Review: Code reviews, architecture reviews
  3. Estimate: Provide effort estimates for tasks
  4. Validate: Test implementations, validate requirements

Action Items

  1. Requirements: Confirm analytics/reporting requirements
  2. Schema Approval: Finance: Approve Gold layer schema (Week 4) - Task 2: Structure Design
  3. Security Approval: Legal: Approve security controls (Week 4)
  4. SME Time: Provide subject matter expert time for validation
  5. Sign-off: Approve rollout plan, accept change

Timeline

Immediate Next Steps

This Week

  • Review architecture document
  • Identify requirements (stakeholders)
  • Confirm availability for review sessions
  • Set up local development environment (data staff)

Next Week

  • Attend requirements gathering session (stakeholders)
  • Review architecture document (if interested)
  • Submit questions/concerns
  • Start ETL development (data staff)

Ongoing

  • Attend weekly status updates (all)
  • Participate in monthly stakeholder meetings (all)
  • Provide feedback as platform evolves (all)

Communication Plan

Weekly Updates

  • Friday Email: Status update, progress, blockers
  • Format: Brief summary, key metrics, next steps

Monthly Meetings

  • First Monday: Stakeholder meeting (30 min)
  • Agenda: Progress, risks, decisions needed

Ad-Hoc

  • Alerts: Immediate notification if critical issues
  • Slack: #data-platform channel for questions

Questions & Support

General Questions

Role-Specific

  • Finance: Contact Finance Controller
  • Operations: Contact Data Quality Lead
  • Legal: Contact Data Platform Lead
  • Business: Contact Domain Analyst
  • Technical: Contact Data Platform Lead

Escalation

  • If urgent: Contact Data Platform Lead directly
  • If blocked: Raise in weekly stakeholder meeting

Last Updated

January 2026

Owner

Data Platform Team


Communication Modules

Task Documentation

Task 5 Documentation

© 2026 Stephen AdeiCC BY 4.0