Project Management

Project Initiation Document Principle

The Project Initiation Document ("PID") is sometimes called the Project Charter as it acts as a practical focus and checklist for the preparations.

Effort and time spent on thinking ahead and preparations at the initiation stage will save several times as much effort and time after the project is under way. It is not just poor planning so much as poor preparation that contributes to project failure.

Objectives

	All relevant preparations for the project should be covered so that as many needs and contingencies as possible have been anticipated and provided.
	Expectations and intended outcomes of the project should be properly understood and defined.
	The terms under which the project can be commissioned and continue should be defined, together with the processes that will keep these under review and the action that will be taken when there is a threat that they will be breached.

Our Approach

It is important to adapt the scale of the PID to the size of the project.

For a project involving just one small business department or unit, the PID could be limited to no more than 2 pages. In these cases, there will be some headings that remind the project manager to consider the point but they need only remark in the document that no preparation is necessary.

Project managers should use the PID template for all project initiations

For smaller projects, the PID can be used as a checklist.

Wherever possible, use PIDs from previous, similar, successful projects as a guide.

The PID template requires that:

-	project staff should be identified
-	project governance and accounting is put in place before the project starts
-	stakeholder expectations are analysed and confirmed
-	benefits identified
-	the first round of planning and of estimating should be carried out before the project starts

Make sure anyone who can contribute, especially to estimating and QA of the estimates, has been consulted.

The first cycle of risk analysis and project visibility should be performed.

The PID should be written and submitted to the sponsor for acceptance and to get the project commissioned.

After acceptance the PID should be circulated so that people impacted can see the objectives of the project and the terms under which it is going ahead.

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