PRINCE2 7 Starting Up a Project – Part 2
Start Up is NOT a Stage
It is a common mistake to think that starting up a project is a stage. It is not. It comes before the project and so before any project stages. For that reason, there is no stage plan for it.
The PRINCE2 lifecycle is longer than the project lifecycle. PRINCE2 finishes when the project finishes but it starts earlier than the project, and that earlier part is startup.
The sequence would be first the startup, then the initiation stage, and then the number of delivery stages that are needed.
Starting up a project objective
The objectives of the process of starting up a project are to ensure:
- there is a business justification for initiating the project (documented in an outline business case).
- all the necessary authorities exist for initiating the project (for example, to assign people and secure resources).
- sufficient information is available to define and confirm the scope of the project (in the form of a project brief).
- alternative approaches have been evaluated and the chosen project approach agreed.
- individuals are appointed who will undertake the work required in the initiation stage or take significant project management roles during the project.
- the work required for the initiation stage (documented in a stage plan) is planned.
- time is not wasted initiating a project based on unsound assumptions regarding the project’s scope, timescales, acceptance criteria, or constraints.
The difference between the project brief and the project initiation documentation
When you are learning PRINCE2, sometimes the products all seemed to swim around in your head, and it is easy to get confused, particularly where Headings are similar. There is a similarity between the brief and the project initiation documentation, and you need to be clear on what each is.
A helpful analogy is with having a house built for you. As a highly paid PRINCE2 expert, you go to an architect to ask for your new house to be designed, the architectural sketch out an idea first.
When you have approved the sketch and agreed that is pretty much what you want to the house, the architect will go away and produce detailed plans which conform to planning and building regulations. The architect does not start with full draw rings then, but with a sketch.
That is the difference in concept between the brief which is a sketch of the project, and the project initiation documentation, which is equivalent of the scale drawings. Both the sketch and a scaled drawings will show a kitchen.
It is just that the scale drawings show us in much more detailed than the sketch did. The detailed drawings will also show more things, such as the electrical circuits. In the same way, some of the content of the project initiation documentation is the same as in the brief, but it is in more detail, and there are some new things which were just too detailed for a sketch.
Understanding nesting – the brief as a folder
And other common cause of confusion is how management products are fit together and what higher level products they fit into. For example, where does the business case come? Is it belonged in the brief and was it in the project initiation documentation?
The answer is that the business case is in both, but at different times during its development. When the business case is first written, it is sketchy and is called the outline business case.
After the brief is approved, that a business case is working to full detail at which point it goes into the project initiation documentation. The project initiation documentation, including the business case inside it, is then maintained throughout the project.
In fact, the minimum that the business case can be updated is at the end of each stage. In the process managing a stage boundary there is an activity called “update the business case”.
Clarifying roles and job descriptions
PRINCE2 stresses than appointments are two roles rather than to jobs because one person may have more than one role, and most roles can be shared by more than one person. Both of these facts bring great flexibility.
For example, one person may be both the project manager and a team member. This person is running the project but also to are some of the work of the project.
The senior user role on the project board may be shared between two people who staff are both affected by the project. And one senior user comes from department A and the other from department B within the organisation.
The allocation of roles can then be backed up with job or role descriptions, so a job description may say that one person on the project is covering two roles are part of the role.
The full detail of roles and responsibilities is in the organization theme. Do not worry about this detailed too much if you have yet learned about that theme, because it will make more sense when you have.
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