Initiating a project

• Purpose
• Objective
• Context
• Activities
  • Overview
  • Prepare the Risk Management Strategy
  • Prepare the Configuration Management Strategy
  • Prepare the Quality Management Strategy
  • Prepare the Communication Management Strategy
  • Set up the project controls
  • Create the Project Plan
  • Refine the Business Case
  • Assemble the Project Initiation Documentation

Key sections

• Introduction
• Business case
• Organization
• Quality
• Plans
• Risk
• Change
• Progress
• Introduction to processes
• Starting up a projectDirecting a project
• Initiating a project
• Controlling a stage
• Managing Product Delivery
• Managing a Stage Boundary
• Closing a Project
• Tailoring PRINCE2 to the project environment
• Directing Projects with PRINCE2

Activities

Set up the project controls

The level of control required by the Project Board after initiation needs to be agreed and the mechanism for such controls needs to be established - as does the level of control required by the Project Manager of the work to be undertaken by Team Managers.

Project controls enable the project to be managed in an effective and efficient manner that is consistent with the scale, risks, complexity and importance of the project.
Effective project controls are a prerequisite for managing by exception.

Project controls can include:

• The frequency and format of communication between the project management levels (see the section covering ‘Organization’)
• The number of stages and hence end stage assessments (see the section covering ‘Plans’)
• Mechanisms to capture and analyse issues and changes (see the section covering ‘Change’)
• Mechanisms to escalate exceptions (see the section covering ‘Progress’)
• Tolerances for delegated authority (see the section covering ‘Progress’)
• How delegated authority from one level of management to another will be monitored (see the section covering ‘Progress’).

Many of these controls will have been defined in the project’s strategies but not necessarily set up.
The focus of this activity is to establish such controls and to make sure that they make sense as a coherent set.

Diagram 1 shows the inputs to, and outputs from, this activity.

© Crown copyright 2005 Reproduced under licence from OGC

Diagram 1

PRINCE2® recommends the following actions:

• Review the Project Brief to understand whether any corporate or programme management strategies, standards or practices relating to controls need to be applied by the project. Identify whether any of these require PRINCE2 to be tailored
• Review the Quality Management Strategy, Configuration Management Strategy, Risk Management Strategy and Communication Management Strategy to identify which controls need to be established
• Seek lessons from similar previous projects, corporate or programme management, and external organizations related to project controls. Some of these may already have been captured in the Lessons Log
• Review the Risk Register and Issue Register for risks and issues associated with project controls. The aggregated set of risks will have an impact on the scale and rigour of control activities
• Confirm and document the management stage boundaries required to provide the appropriate level of control
• Allocate the various levels of decision making required within the project to the most appropriate project management level.
• Establish any decision-making procedures that may be appropriate, possibly by tailoring procedures within an existing quality management system or other standard procedures
• Incorporate the agreed decision-making authority and responsibility into the project management team structure and role descriptions where appropriate; this may include finalizing any roles not previously allocated, re-allocating roles previously filled and, if necessary, re-designing the project management team
• Confirm the tolerances for the project and the escalation procedures (from Team Managers to Project Manager, Project Manager to Project Board, and Project Board to corporate or programme management)
• Summarize the project controls in the Project Initiation Documentation
• Consult with Project Assurance to check that the proposed project controls are consistent with the nature of the project and meet the needs of the Project Board and/or corporate or programme management
• If any new risks or issues are identified (or existing ones have changed), then update the Risk Register, Issue Register and/or Daily Log
• Seek Project Board approval for the project controls (the Project Board may prefer to review them later as part of the Project Initiation Documentation)

© Crown copyright 2005 Reproduced under licence from OGC

Diagram 2

PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.