Project Initiation is the first step in an approved project’s delivery journey.
The initiation stage focuses on team alignment and engagement. During this stage, with support from the Project Sponsor and Project Owner, the Project Manager (PM) ensures the project, its governance, and its goals are clearly defined and understood by the project team, before project work begins.
Prerequisites
Project initiation sets the foundations for the rest of the project, if initiation is chaotic and project goals unclear then project delivery will be challenging and the team confused. The following must be completed by the Sponsor and Owner, preferably ahead of initiation but as a minimum ahead of the kick off meeting.
Project Charter - A written document or communication has been issued by the Sponsor detailing scope, business goal alignment, definition of done, outputs, benefits, outcomes and named team members.
Sponsor Commitment - The business has assigned a Sponsor; they act as the project decision maker and are invested in the project’s success.
Handover - The Sponsor has handed over the ‘doing’ to the Project Owner and Project Manager, using the Project Charter as reference.
Allocate Resource - Either the Sponsor or Owner has ensured the correct resources are available for the project.
Initiation - simple steps
Initiation is a simple stage in the project process and is focused on project set up and team alignment.
This stage typically includes the creation of project governance documents, such as a risk & issues log and finance tracker.
Project kick off
The kick off meeting ends the initiation stage and starts the planning stage and is critical to ensuring team alignment and engagement.
Here are 5 things to consider in ensuring a successful kick off meeting, whatever your project role is.
Surely it’s not that simple?
It really is. During initiation the PM will perform most of the tasks, with support from the Project Sponsor and Project Owner.
If you are the PM, be aware that you may need to manage the Sponsor and Owner to ensure the Project Charter is completed!