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Authorize The Project 

 February 27, 2016

By  Dave Litten

Authorize The Project – Project Authorization 

During the initiation stage, the Initiating a Project process is used to assemble all the information within the Project Initiation Documentation.  This documentation will normally be reviewed at draft status by project assurance, but when the project manager determines that this documentation is ready to be approved, then the project manager will request from the project board to authorize the project.

Also within the initiation stage, the project manager will trigger the Managing a Stage Boundary process to prepare the next Stage Plan, updates other key documents such as the Business Case and the Project Plan and prepare an End-Stage Report.  When the project manager is content that the draft documentation is ready for approval then the project manager will request from the project board to authorize the next stage.  The activity used for this, is the Authorizing a Stage or Exception Plan (within the Directing a Project process).

Both requests to authorize the project and authorizing a stage or exception plan will normally be performed in parallel, since both the PID and the next stage plan needs to be signed off before the project can proceed to the next stage.

Authorize The Project – Objectives.

The objective of authorize the project is to decide whether to proceed with the rest of the project, however if the project board decided not to proceed then the project should be prematurely closed, and in this case the closing a project process will be used followed by a request from the project manager to authorize the project closure by the project board.

In order to authorize the project the project board will need to undertake the following actions:

Review the project definition and project approach to ensure that they are still feasible, and check that lessons from previous projects have been incorporated.  The project board will want to confirm that the four strategy documents are sufficient for the project and that they will perform their purpose of adequate control throughout the project.

The project board must ensure that the project management team have agreed roles and responsibilities, in particular any delegation of duties for example the appointment of a change authority.

The project board will want to ensure that the Project Plan is viable and achievable and that the project controls are adequate for the type and nature of the project.  As a result of planning the product based planning technique will have been used and the project board must review and approve all product descriptions.  They will also want to check that the tolerances for the project set by corporate all programme management remain appropriate and realistic.

The Project Plan will identify resources needed to up the project, and the project board must satisfy themselves that they are able to obtain or commit these resources, however such resources will only be released to the project manager on a stage by stage basis.

The Project Initiation Documentation will also include how the PRINCE2 method is to be tailored to meet the needs of this particular project, and the project board must satisfy themselves that this tailoring is appropriate.

As one of the final activities leading to full assembly of the Project Initiation Documentation, is that the outline Business Case will have been refined to become the detailed Business Case.  The Project Plan timescales and costs will have been input to the detailed Business Case, and the project board must satisfy themselves that the Business Case demonstrates a viable project.

The Senior User role is responsible for identifying benefits contained within the Business Case, and the project manager will use these to draft the Benefits Review Plan showing how and when the benefits will be realized.  This also needs to be reviewed and approved by the project board.

The project board must now either authorize the project manager to deliver the project or instruct the project manager to close the project prematurely if they decide not to proceed any further.  Whatever decision the project board make they must now notify corporate programme management plus other interested parties that the project has been authorized or not.

Authorize the Project – making a success of the Initiation Stage

Authorize the project takes place as part of the project board’s responsibilities, and is triggered by the project manager (having completed the Initiation Stage management products) requesting to deliver a project.

The activity used by the Project Board is called ‘Authorize the project’, and they in turn, will notify Corporate/Programme Management of their decision via ‘project authorization notification.

If this seems a little formal, consider the consequences of the above; once the project board have signed off the Project Initiation Documentation (PID), they are committed to the project even though they approve its continuation/early closure at each end stage assessment.

This activity of authorize the project will normally take place at a formal meeting and is usually done in parallel with Authorizing a Stage or Exception Plan activity –  the second stage plan in this case (otherwise no further work will take place!).

It is worth noting that an alternate outcome (and this should be seen as appositive decision based on solid business evidence), that the project should be prematurely closed.

Authorize the project – the project board.

Apart from that, the project board’s main objective here is to:

  • Review and approve the Project Initiation Documentation confirming that all parts are complete and accurate.
  • Confirm that all members of the Project Management Team have agreed their roles and responsibilities
  • Review and approve the Benefits Review Plan
  • Obtain the resources needed by the project
  • Authorize the project manager to deliver the project

Authorize the project starts with a request to authorize the project from the project manager, and for the project board to do that, they need certain PRINCE2 documented evidence that will help them make an informed choice:

The Lessons Log.

This will have been updated continually with mainly lessons from previous projects and the project manager’s procative actions to seek out suitable learnings from approariate sources and individuals experiences. This information will help the project board to ascertain that such lessons have been embedded in the other documentation that is being brought before them, and encourage them to authorize the project.

The Project Initiation Documentation (PID) contains all the plans and strategies that will be used and applied by this project. Such documentation will have been already audited by Project Assurance.

One of these documents is the Business Case which is owned by the project board executive and it is used here to ensure that the project is viable, desirable, and achievable.

A ‘sister’ document to the Business Case is the Benefits Review Plan, which lays down how each benefit will be measured and implemented. This document is owned by the Senior User role, and they are held responsible to the end of the project and beyond for these benefits being realized based on the operational use of the project’s products.

The main output of the authorize the project activity is just that, and this is usually given at the same time as the Authorize a stage or exception plan activity. When that is done, then the authorize the project activity is complete, and work can start on the first delivery stage.

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Dave Litten


Dave spent 25+ years as a senior project manager for UK and USA multinationals and has deep experience in project management. He now develops a wide range of Project Management Masterclasses, under the Projex Academy brand name. In addition, David runs project management training seminars across the world, and is a prolific writer on the many topics of project management.

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