Diploma in Computing & IT and

Business Information Technology

CTT 06206/BIT 06207- Introduction to Project

Management

Second Year - 2nd Semester

By

Prudence Ongera

prudence@udsm.ac.tz
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 Lecture 3
Initiation Process

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 Overview
• Initiation stage is highly instrumental in the life cycle of a
project as it defines the boundaries of the project and
gives clarity to all participants about the objectives,
scope, cost and timescale of the project
• It sets the baseline for scope, cost and schedule
• Identifies the right people to involve
• Defines what is included in scope
• Identifies items not included in scope
• Breaks project into manageable pieces
• Defines major project deliverables
• Define key project risks
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 Initiating the Project
Agreeing the brief
– Business problem or opportunity is identified
– The Project Manager secures the:
• briefing, backing and resources needed from the
sponsor to begin a detailed evaluation of the work
to be undertaken
– The solution of the identified problem or
opportunity is agreed by two parties (i.e. you
and sponsor)
– A project formed to produce the solution and
a project team appointed

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 Initiating the Project….
Getting the right support
– The type of support you need from the sponsor
during this phase will to a degree be dependent
on where the idea for the project came form
– Top-down initiation
• The sponsor delegates the execution of the project
to you
– Bottom-up initiation
• Not all the best ideas come from those at the top of
an organization; those closest to the customer may
be first to spot the business opportunity

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PM Knowledge Areas – Initiation Processes

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PM Knowledge Areas – Initiation Processes

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 Project Charter & Project Management
Plan

• Terminology comes from the PMBOK® but

similar documents exist in any project.
• Other terms used:
– Project Charter: Project Initiation Document,
Project Mandate, Project Brief, Letter of
Agreement, Statement of Work
– Project Management Plan: Strategy Plan,
Project Execution Plan, Project Plan

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 Project Charter and Project Management
Plan - The Main Concept

• Project Charter:
– Comes from “outside” the project and defines
the project.
– Unchanged during the project.
• Project Management Plan:
– Owned by the project team.
– Constantly updated during the course of the
project.

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 Processes in Project Initiation

• Develop Project Charter

• Stakeholder Analysis
• Holding a kick-off meeting

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 Building the Project Charter
(Definition)
• The Project Charter is a document that formally recognizes the
existence of a project. It describes the product to be delivered and
addresses the business need of the project.
• The charter should be SMART:
– Specific Typical contents of Project Charter:
– Measurable  Project Title, Start & Finish Date
– Achievable
 Budget Information
– Realistic
 Project Manager (contact
– Time-specific
address)
 Project Objectives
The Project Charter  Project scope
authorizes the project
manager to use
 Approach
Organizational resources to  Roles and Responsibilities
complete the project (Sign off)
 Comments (from stakeholders)
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 Inputs to Process of
“Developing Project Charter”

– Project statement of work, Business Case and/or

Contract
– Enterprise environmental factors
– Organizational process assets

• Reasons for projects:

– Business need
– Product scope description
– Strategic plan

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 Examples of Enterprise Environmental
Factors

• Organizational or company culture and

structure
• Infrastructure, for example, existing facilities
and capital equipment
• Existing human resources
• Personnel administration (e.g. hiring and
firing guidelines, employee performance
reviews)
• Marketplace conditions

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 Organizational Process Assets
• Represents the organization’s processes and
procedures and the organization’s learning and
knowledge (“Lessons learned”), e.g.
– Organizational standard processes
– Standardized guidelines, templates, work
instructions, evaluation criteria
– Project closure guidelines or requirements (e.g.
audits)
– Financial control procedures
– Information about previous projects (and why they
failed)
– Historical information (e.g. identified risk events)

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 Stakeholder Analysis
• Stakeholders are individuals, work groups and
organizations that are actively involved in the
project, or whose interests can be positively or
negatively affected as the result of project execution
or project completion.
• Stakeholder analysis serves two purposes:
– to determine the information needs of the various
stakeholders.
– to devise a communication strategy that will best
serve the project.
• The output of Stakeholder analysis is Stakeholder
Register

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 Typical Roles and Responsibilities
of Stakeholders
• Project Sponsor
– the one with the money or one who owns the
resources needed for the project to succeed
• Senior Management
– e.g. priorities between projects, project charter
• Project Team
– Does Planning and Execution
• Functional Manager:
– “owns” resources (IT, marketing, etc.)
• Project Manager
– The individual responsible for the project
• Other Stakeholders
– Customer, Technical specialists, End users etc
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 Holding a Project Kick-off Meeting

• A meeting held at the beginning of a project so

that stakeholders can meet each other, review
the goals of the project, and discuss future plans
• Often held after the business case and project
charter are completed, but it could be held
sooner, as needed
• Used to get support for a project and clarify roles
and responsibilities

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 Summary

• Difference between Project Charter

and Project Management Plan
• Three processes for Project Initiation
– Creating Project Charter
– Identify Stakeholder Analysis
– Holding a kick-off meeting

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 Summary…

• Key outputs of Initiation process include:

– Stakeholder register
– Project Charter

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