Authorizing a PRINCE2 Project

 

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 of the authorisation to deliver 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 authorise the next stage.  The activity used for this, is the Authorising a Stage or Exception Plan (within the 

Directing a Project process).

 

Both requests to authorise the project and authorising 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.

 

The objective of authorising 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 authorise project closure by the project board.

 

In order to authorise 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 realised.  This also needs to be reviewed and approved by the project board.

 

The project board must now either authorise 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 authorised or not.

 

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