Starting up a project

The purpose of the first PRINCE2 process, starting up a project, is to determine if the project is viable and worthwhile before moving forward. It answers the question, “do we have a viable and worthwhile project?”

The input to this process is the project mandate, which provides the initial direction, objectives, and constraints for the project. It’s a high-level document that gives the project board the authority to begin the project. The output of this process is the project brief, which builds upon the project mandate and provides a more detailed description of the project, including the scope, objectives, risks, and approach.

The decision to start the project must be clear, as all activities in this process happen before that decision. No actions should be taken until the key information needed to make informed decisions is defined, roles and responsibilities are assigned, and a foundation for detailed planning is in place.

The starting up a project process aims to prevent poorly conceived ideas from being initiated and move viable projects forward for approval. This process is lighter compared to the more detailed initiating a project process. The goal is to do the minimum necessary to decide whether proceeding with the project is worthwhile.

Objectives

The objectives of the starting up a project process are to prepare and make sure that the following is done during and by the end of this process:

• There is a business case (business reason), and this should be documented in the outline business case. The business case document is not completed until the initiation stage.
• Look at the project approach, which examines the best way to do this project and obtain advice from other projects in the form of lessons learned, specialists or even outside knowledge.
• Choose the people who will do the work to initialize the project, and other roles in the project team.
• Create the project brief, which provides information on the scope of the project and most of the information collected during this process.
• Create a detailed stage plan to plan the work to be done in the initiation stage.

So, as you can see, the objectives of the starting up a project process are to provide the project board with certain information and to prepare the initiation stage plan.

Activities

This is a high-level overview of the activities:

• The trigger to start the project is the project mandate, which is provided by a high-level person within the company (business level) or a programme (corp / programme environment).
• During this process, the project mandate will be expanded into the project brief. Keep in mind that the project brief will be used by the project board to decide whether to initiate the project or not. Note: if the project is part of a program, then the program will provide most of the project brief. In fact, most of the work in this process will already be done by the program.
• Assembling the project brief and refining the outline business case requires close cooperation between the project manager, project board and some of the stakeholders.
• The work on the project brief and the outline business case is an iterative activity, i.e., there is a constant cycle of discussions and improvements to these documents.
• PRINCE2 points out that the more time spent on clearly defining the requirements in this process, the more time will be saved during the project, as some of the following situations can be avoided:
  • Meetings and detailed discussions trying to define certain products;
  • Re-planning due to creating the wrong sub-products; and
  • Avoiding costly exceptions during the stages.

In many companies, projects are started too quickly, as upper management needs to see that some action is taken, resulting in the creation of a poorly defined project product.

The following activities are to be done in the starting up a project process:

• Appoint the executive and the project manager.
• Capture previous lessons.
• Design and appoint the project management team.
• Prepare the outline business case and create the project product description (PPD). The PPD is a description of the main product that will be produced
• Select the project approach and assemble the project brief.
• Planning the initiation stage.
• Most activities are done by the project manager. The outline business case is created by the project executive with some assistance from the project manager and the project product description is created by the project manager.

Inputs

The following are the main inputs to the process:

• The project mandate is the trigger to start the project and comes from outside the project.
• The project mandate can include data such as the reasons for the project, some business case information, and perhaps other data that the project brief requires.
• The PM should seek lessons from other projects (e.g., see if lessons reports are available from other projects or invite all stakeholders to offer lessons).

Main outputs

The following are the main outputs of the process:

• Project product description: This is normally a 1-3 page description of the main product that the project will produce. The structure of this document is covered in both the quality and plans practice.
• Outline business case: this is the responsibility of the executive. Its objective is to provide some business justification for the project.
• Project management structure: this will provide information on the structure of the project management team (the project board, assurance, change authority, project manager).
• Project approach: this part of the document will define the project approach that the project should take. The project manager will ask such questions as:
  • Create product from scratch, update existing product, or off-the-shelf solutions?
  • Should we use internal or external people in the project?
  • What can we learn from other projects?
  • Are there other information sources, both internal and external?
• Project brief: all the above information is assembled into the project brief, plus other information, such as the scope, roles & responsibilities, six performance targets.
• Initiation stage plan: the project manager creates this first plan (stage plan), which is a day-to-day plan for the initiation stage.
• Request to initiate the project: the final output of this process is to send a request to the project board to initiate the project, which is to allow the project’s first stage to start. The project manager gives the project brief and initiation stage plan to the project board.

Roles and responsibilities

This is a high-level overview of the roles and responsibilities of the activities involved in starting up a project:

• Commissioning (business level)
  • Provides project mandate (triggers and comes from outside the project).
  • Provides project level tolerance information.
  • Appoints the executive and may appoint the project manager.
• Project executive
  • Appoints the project manager (if not done already).
  • Approves the project management team structure.
  • Creates the outline business case.
• Senior user
  • Provides information for the project product description.
• Project manager
  • Facilitates the creation of most of the project brief (project product description, roles & responsibilities, scope, project management team structure, etc.).
  • Facilitates the project approach and gathers lessons.
  • Creates the initiation stage plan.
• Team manager
  • May be asked to help with project approach and project product description.

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Written by Frank Turley.

If you have questions or doubts after using this wiki, you can ask for help on the Facebook or LinkedIn study groups.