Initiating a Project (IP)

While SU uses Planning (PL) to create the Initiation Stage Plan the ‘first use in anger of PL’ might reasonably be regarded as that by Planning A Project (IP2) which creates the (A.30) Project Plan. This is arguably ‘first use’ because Planning (PL) starts with Designing a Plan (PL1) only on first use. PL1 requires the (A.31) Project Quality Plan produced in Planning Quality (IP1) as a guiding input.

IP1 establishes the quality regime or quality policy to be followed in the project. IP1 consults and consolidates standards relevant to the customer, the suppliers and the products to be created. Responsibilities are added to Job descriptions and the resulting (A.31) Project Quality Plan is passed to Planning A Project (IP2). Note that IP1 relies on business oriented project assurance and on representatives of corporate QA to contribute/ confirm that the correct standards have been considered and selected for inclusion in (A.22) Product Descriptions.

The (A.31) Project Quality Plan guides project planning activities to create a (A.30) Project Plan which includes time and effort for the work required to instil quality into the management and specialist products of the project.

The project plan (and optional (A.21) Product Checklist) produced by Planning A Project (IP2) is a product oriented schedule plus supporting information suitable for the (B.1) Project Board to track project progress and is the 2nd of the few mandatory items within PRINCE2®. The first mandatory item was the use of stages.

Stage boundaries are suggested by IP2’s use of Planning (PL). Specifically Defining and Analysing Products (PL2) creates the project level (A.23) Product Flow Diagram. The project level PFD provides an over-all view of the sequence of product development within the project that is helpful to IP4 - refer to the diagram above! - when deciding where to place stage boundaries and assessing the required rigor and frequency of other controls.

The reliable (ie accurate even if not necessarily precise) assessment of the project’s cost and timescale resulting from IP2 is input to Refining the Business Case and Risks (IP3) for financial and benefits oriented appraisal of the (A.2) Business Case and risk profile. The degree of precision from Estimating (PL4) during development of the (A.30) Project Plan by Planning A Project (IP2) is used to guide suggestion of tolerance limits during IP4.

When all of; (A.25) Project Approach, (A.31) Project Quality Plan, the IP2 and IP3 outputs such as project costs, timescales and risks are know then Setting up Project Controls (IP4) is used to design a control regime that sets stage boundaries and tolerances (as discussed above). IP4 also defines the (A.4) Communication Plan, and also defines the delegation of responsibilities for and frequency of monitoring and reporting that is matched to the (B.1) Project Board’'s tolerances for risk versus control costs.

Setting up Project Files (IP5) then creates the project's filing system including the storage areas for the (B.9) Configuration Librarian’s configuration management data. The (A.6) Configuration Management Plan created in IP1 is updated at this time to include the filing system within the (A.31) Project Quality Plan ready for inclusion in the (A.27) Project Initiation Document.

The whole information set from IP is collectively known as the (A.27) Project Initiation Document (PID). The PID contains the project background & definition from the (A.26) Project Brief, the (A.25) Project Approach, Project tolerances and controls plus initial business case, initial project plan, and initial risks situation plus organisation structure, (A.4) Communication Plan and (A.31) Project Quality Plan. This package is forwarded to the project board with the results of Managing Stage Boundaries (SB) (i.e. the "next (A.35) Stage Plan" and the initiation stage’s (A.10) End Stage Report) for approval by DP2 to move into the first specialist stage.

Next lets look at Directing A Project