PRINCE2 7 Starting up a project
PRINCE2 7 Starting up a project Purpose
The purpose of starting up a project is to ensure that the prerequisites for initiating a project are established by answering the question, ‘Do we have a viable and worthwhile project?’
The decision to start the project must be explicit, as the activities in starting up a project happen before this decision. Nothing should be done until fundamental information needed to make rational decisions about the commissioning of the project is defined, key roles and responsibilities are resourced and allocated, and a foundation for detailed planning is available.
Starting up a project is more about preventing poorly conceived ideas from being initiated than progressing viable projects for approval. As such, starting up a project is a lighter process compared to the more detailed and thorough process of initiating a project. The aim is to do the minimum necessary to decide whether it is worthwhile even to initiate the project.
PRINCE2 Starting up a project Objectives
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 to initiate the project (for example, to assign people and secure resources).
● sufficient information is available to define and confirm the project’s scope (in the form of a project brief).
● alternative approaches have been evaluated, and the chosen project approach has been agreed upon.
● Individuals who will undertake the work required in the initiation stage or take significant project management roles during the project are appointed.
● 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.
Projects can be triggered in several ways and thus vary widely in the information available before they are formally initiated. In PRINCE2, the trigger for the project is referred to as the project mandate. This is provided by the responsible authority from the business commissioning the project.
There is also a wide variety of areas where the responsible authority could come from, e.g., the project executive group, a functional or operational unit, a programme, a portfolio, or a customer.
From an organizational perspective in PRINCE2, the responsible authority is considered outside the project in the business layer. The term project mandate applies to whatever information is used to trigger the project, such as a feasibility study or the receipt of a request for proposal in a supplier environment.
The project mandate should provide the terms of reference for the project and contain sufficient information to identify at least the prospective project executive of the project board.
The information in the project mandate is refined to develop the project brief.
The project board must be provided with sufficient information to initiate the project. The project brief is prepared for this purpose.
The effort involved in starting up a project can vary enormously from project to project. If the project is part of a programme, the programme management team should provide the project brief and appoint some, if not all, project board members, thus eliminating much of the work required in this process.
In such cases, the project manager should validate what the programme provides and recommend necessary modifications.
Preparing the outline business case and assembling the project brief, which are parallel and iterative activities, require regular and frequent interaction and consultation between the project manager, the project board members, and other stakeholders.
The more time spent on clearly capturing the requirements while starting up a project, the more time will be saved during project initiation and delivery by avoiding issues, exceptions, and replanning.
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