The Power of Context Building

Why Context Building Matters

Success in any complex enterprise environment depends on executing tasks and understanding the landscape in which a project operates. This includes the people, processes, interactions, and expectations that shape project execution. Without a structured approach to gaining this understanding, projects can face misalignment, unexpected obstacles, and inefficiencies that derail progress.

Understanding context is essential for reducing risk. If you're missing context, you're likely to be blindsided by people or expectations you were unaware existed. Teams can proactively address potential risks and avoid surprises by ensuring all relevant factors are mapped out.

At Assembly, we conduct Context Building during the Align phase of The Assembly Way using our Assembly Context Model™. This structured technique ensures that all necessary stakeholders, processes, and dependencies are mapped out before work begins. This enables smooth execution, reduces risk, and ensures project momentum is not lost due to miscommunications or unknown organization expectations.

What is the Assembly Context Model™?

The Assembly Context Model is about understanding the working environment—who we have to work with, what processes are in place, and how interactions occur. It creates a comprehensive map of the project ecosystem:

• Identifying Key Stakeholders: Who needs to be involved, at what stages, and at what level of detail?

• Mapping Interactions: Ensuring the right people provide the right inputs at the right time.

• Defining Communication Needs: Delivering updates in the format and frequency expected by different groups (e.g., weekly status reports, Steering Committee updates, security review timelines).

• Documenting Approvals & Dependencies: Identifying key processes, such as security approvals, procurement cycles, and regulatory compliance checkpoints.

Doing this upfront prevents last-minute surprises and ensures all teams are aligned.

Key Areas of the Assembly Context Model™

Our process focuses on three critical areas:

1. Available Skills

Before execution begins, we assess team capabilities and permissions to ensure that the necessary expertise and access are available:

• Inventory of skills within client and partner teams. Example: A team member with prior experience navigating regulatory compliance requirements for digital services.

• Identification of any skills gaps that may require additional resources. Example: The project requires an SME to define financial calculations for the product, but no one with that expertise is currently assigned.

• Verify access rights and necessary permissions (e.g., system access, regulatory approvals). Example: Confirming whether the development team has access to the cloud infrastructure to deploy services or if external approvals are required.

2. Boundaries and Interactions

Understanding the structure of stakeholder relationships and communication flows is crucial:

• Identifying who needs to communicate with whom and when. Example: The marketing team needs regular updates from engineering to align their digital campaigns with upcoming feature releases.

• Mapping dependencies between teams and approvals required at different project phases. Example: The product team requires legal approval before launching a feature that collects personally identifiable information (PII).

• Establishing workflows for shared communication (e.g., mailing lists, project dashboards, reporting structures). Example: Creating a shared Slack channel where design, product, and engineering teams post daily updates to ensure alignment.

• Assigning ownership of communication channels to ensure clarity and accountability. Example: The Engineering Lead provides weekly updates on sprint progress, blockers, and upcoming deployments via a structured Confluence post. The Project Manager consolidates all status reports into a Notion dashboard, reviewed biweekly during a stakeholder sync.

3. Resource Commitments

Every project requires time, funding, and services. We work with stakeholders to:

• Define resource commitments and availability. Example: Confirming that the front-end development team is fully allocated to this initiative and won’t be split across multiple projects.

• Identify constraints or risks related to resource allocation. Example: A security compliance review is required before launch, but the security team is only available once per quarter, creating a potential risk of delay.

• Establish an action plan to address potential gaps before the project starts. Example: The project requires integration with a third-party service, but their API documentation is incomplete, and access won't be granted until the final testing phase. To mitigate risk, the team sets up API mocks for early development and prepares a contingency plan using manual data entry if delays persist.

How We Execute the Assembly Context Model™

The process is designed to gather context while minimizing stakeholder disruption. Our approach follows a structured series of steps:

1. Pre-Workshop Alignment

Before engaging stakeholders, we align with the client's Project Lead to determine:

• Available skills & access permissions

• Stakeholder relationships & dependencies

• Key communication workflows, owners, and cadences.

• Governance and approval requirements

• Determine which stakeholders will review and approve the Context Document.

• Compile all information gathered into a Miro board to provide a structured baseline to review in the Collaborative Stakeholder Workshop.

2. Collaborative Stakeholder Workshop

A 1–1.5 hour workshop is held with stakeholders to:

• Review and finalize the Miro baseline collaboratively

• Flag open questions or unknowns and risks.

3. Drafting & Approving the Context Document

The consolidated insights from the workshop are documented in the Context Document as the first version.

• Finalize open questions, unknowns, and risks.

• Draft Context Document for review with the Project Lead before broader approval.

• Finalized and circulated for stakeholder sign-off.

4. Resource Commitments

The resource commitments will be known once the solution architecture, roadmap, and estimations have been completed. The following will be added to the Context Document before the end of the Align phase:

• Defined resource commitments and availability.

• Constraints or risks related to resource allocation.

• An action plan to address potential gaps before the project starts.

This structured process ensures we gather complete, accurate, and actionable context to drive successful project execution.

The Outcome: The Context Document

The Context Document will serve as a structured guide for the engagement. This document ensures transparency and alignment before execution begins.

What the Context Document Includes

1. Stakeholder Interaction Map – Defines roles, communication workflows, and dependencies.

2. Skills Inventory & Access Matrix – Captures available expertise, permissions, and gaps.

3. Governance, Compliance & Security Checklist – Identifies regulatory requirements and security checkpoints.

4. Resource Allocation Plan – Details constraints and interdependencies.

5. Defined Communication Plan & Reporting Structure – Ensures all teams receive timely and relevant updates.

Why the Assembly Context Model™ Works

A structured context-building process prevents misalignment, reduces risk, and sets projects up for smooth execution. This ensures that every project starts on the right foot—with clarity, alignment, and a shared understanding of success.