The PRINCE2 Initiating a project process

 

The Starting Up a Project process occurs pre-project, and the two management products; the Project Brief and Initiation Stage Plan, approved by the project board so that the initiation stage (the first stage of any PRINCE2 project), can start.  The process Initiating a Project, is used during the initiation stage to assemble all of the information contained within the Project Initiation Documentation is created.

 

Therefore, the main purpose of Initiating a Project is to determine the work that needs to be done to deliver the project products and establish solid foundations of the project before committing to the significant spend of the following stages.

 

It is important that all stakeholders must be clear on what the project is intending to achieve, why the project is needed, how the outcome will be achieved and what the stakeholder responsibilities are, so that there can be a genuine commitment made to project delivery.  

 

The Project Initiation Documentation will be presented to the project board via the Directing a Project process and its activity ‘ authorising a project’, for them to decide whether or not the project is sufficiently aligned with corporate or programme management objectives to authorise its continuation.

 

Therefore, the added value of the initiation stage is to avert the problem of proceeding directly into the creation of the specialist products without first fully understanding how the project objectives will be achieved.  

 

You can see quite clearly that without the information contained within the project Initiation Documentation, that the project board would be simply taking a leap of faith.

 

The Initiation Stage Plan created by the project manager within the Starting Up a Project process, will have included how the project board will review and approve the management products created during the initiation stage.

 

The Initiating a Project process will ensure that there is a common understanding of the reasons for doing the project, the benefits expected and the risks associated with the project along with their responses.  

 

In addition, this process will determine precisely what the scope of the project is, how the project’s products will be delivered, when they will be delivered, and at what cost.

 

This process will also determine who will be involved in making project decisions, how will the required quality will be achieved, how baselines will be established and managed, how risks, issues and changes will be managed, the monitoring and controlling of progress and the project’s Communication Management Strategy.

 

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