Initiate Project (IP)

Purpose

Initiating a Project process defines the work that needs to be done to deliver the required artefacts. The process builds the foundation for the project, clearly defining what the project will achieve. The project manager is expected to create a Project Initiation Documentation (PID) to show - cost, project delivery plan, milestones, level of quality, communication and risk management, which should answer the following questions to the project board:

1. Scope

2. Timeline

3. Benefits and risks 

4. Quality control mechanism

5. Change control mechanism

6. Communication channels and hierarchy 

Process flow

The Initiate Project phase requires close collaboration between the Executive and the Project Manager to deliver a comprehesive and coherent Project Initiation Document, following these steps:

1. Develop the Risk Management plan; drawing on the coporate approach to risks, hazards, reponses and reporting regime.

2. Define the Quality Management plan; defining the testing approach from project products may require input from third parties.  All project management products (i.e. registers, logs and deliverables) should be diligently maintained and audited by the coporate PMO or project assurance.

3. Define the Change managment plan; by reviewing past lessons, the Project Product Description and the appetite for changes during the project seeking guidance from Corporate in terms of inter-project dependencies, budgets, etc.

4. Define the Configuration Management plan; for the project products and configuration items, including how software source and executable code will be controlled and deployed, how hardware assets,  associated documentation and licenses will be tracked (usually in the organisational Configuration Management Database) - both during and after the project.

5. Define the Communication Management Strategy once the Risk, Quality, Change and Configuration Management approaches have been drafted; stratifying the different of internal project, external organisation stakeholders and groups, as well as any third parties and possibly also public or anonymous stakeholders (e.g. website users) will be kept informed of the project status and forecasting.

6. Set up the project controls; define how progress will be monitored and tracked - in particular how reported progress may be validated - so that stages or earned value recognised in the case of an agreed payment schedule.

7. Create the Project Plan; in consultation with the delivery manager and/or team - often a third party vendor - ensuring that task estimates are oprovided by those who will be responsibile for delivering the various elements of the project products 

Inputs

1. Authorization to Initiate the Project from the Project Board

2. Project Brief from Starting up Process

3. The Initiation Stage Plan from Starting up Process  

Key Deliverables

Quality Management Plan

Change Control Plan

Issue Register

Risk Management Plan

Risk Register

Communication Management Plan

Benefits Review Plan

Project Product Description(s); 

Project Initiation Document; project approach, business case, benefits, project controls, team structure and role descriptions 

Project Plan; prerequisites, approach, assumptions, budget and schedule