Plan the Initiation Stage in PRINCE2

The Starting Up a Project process takes place pre-project, and is used to generate sufficient evidence so that the project board can make an informed choice about whether or not to start the project.  If their decision is yes, then the project board will want to know what is involved within the initiation stage, and this will include the resources, costs, and timescales.

 

There are two major activities that take place in the initiation stage, one is the use of the Initiating a Project process to create and assemble the Project Initiation Documentation (PID), and the second is the time, effort, and resources needed to prepare for the End-Stage Assessment when using the Managing a Stage Boundary process.  This also ensures that initiation is not aimless and unstructured.

 

Remember, that for lengthy or risky initiation stages, the Controlling a Stage and Managing Product Delivery processes may be needed, and therefore the timescales, costs, and resources to carry these out must also be included within the initiation Stage Plan. Consider also, that the initiation stage is normally very interactive, and creates all of the documents contained within the PID.  

 

It is highly likely that early draft versions of such documents will be reviewed by the project board or by project insurance, and so communication activities and resources will be quite high.  It is important therefore that these are included within the initiation Stage Plan.

 

The chosen project approach should be used as a basis for deciding what level of project controls will be needed for the initiation stage.  The Lessons Log should be reviewed to check for any lessons that can be applied to project controls.  

 

As part of the controls, the project manager will want to define the reporting arrangements for the initiation stage.

 

The project manager will want to identify any constraints on the timescale all costs and take those into consideration when producing the Stage Plan for the initiation stage.  Similarly, the Daily Log should be inspected for any risks and their impact during the initiation stage should be assessed and included in the Stage Plan.

 

There are four types of plan in a PRINCE2 project, the Project Plan, relevant Stage Plans, optional Team Plans, and should it be necessary, Exception Plans.  All of these will use the PRINCE2 product-based planning technique, and the same is therefore true for the initiation Stage Plan.

 

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