Project Management Blog

The project initiation phase is the critical phase within the project lifecycle. It is also called the project pre-planning phase and about stating the basic characteristics of the project. To successfully initiate a project, you need to which basics steps are required to carry out to develop a business case, undertake a feasibility study, develop a project charter and others.

Here are the basics steps of the project initiation phase:

Step #1 - Create Business Case - A business case document is the formal start of the project when the project sponsor (or the project initiator) gives a description of the business problem/opportunity. The project is to be initiated to address the problem or provide alternative solutions. The business case document will include the business problem and potential costs associated with the project implementation. 

Step #2 - Make Feasibility Study - A feasibility study is a research conducted to determine whether the project can be accomplished and to identify the likelihood of the alternative solutions. The feasibility study investigates whether the benefits stated in the business case can be delivered. It also depicts relationship of business costs with the project solutions.

Step 3 - Develop Project Charter - Once the business problem/opportunity and possible solutions have been identified, your next step is to develop a project charter which is the critical document of the initiation phase. The project charter essentially describes what your project sets out to solve the business problem and what the boundaries of the project will be. It specifies the project vision, goals & objectives, scope & boundaries, deliverables & expectations, project organization and an implementation plan.

Step 4 - Assign Project Management Team - The project charter is developed so you can proceed with identifying human resources required for delivering the project and achieving its goals. You will need to appoint the management team which will take the primary responsibility for the planning and implementation of your project. The Project Committee should be established and the project manager should be assigned. Then the project manager will work on recruiting the project team and making project assignments. Once the team is recruited and assignments are made, the project initiation phase is almost finished; only one step is ahead.

Step 5 - Perform Review - Your last step to take through the project initiation phase is about reviewing your project. A review stage should be conducted to ensure that the project is successfully initiated – this means all of the initiation activities are completed. Once the project is reviewed, the project planning will be.

Usually a project is considered successful if groups of the project parameters like cost, time and scope are properly selected and match the expectations of project stakeholders. Some people devote much time and many efforts trying to initiate, plan, track and manage their projects, but they often don’t give a great deal of thoughts to actually the benefits of each project.

When initiating a new project, identifying benefits seems to be a quite obvious goal for the project. However, many projects are initiated with what seems to be a good idea but not an identified benefit. Along with such project parameters like cost, time and scope, the benefit is a particular and specific parameter that tends to be one of the most significant things that we should be focused on when planning and initiating our projects.

Your project becomes successful if the expected benefits are derived. This is the core of benefits management for projects. Benefits management is the way to put your focus in the most appropriate place by asking the questions like: 'Why am I doing this project?' and 'Why am I still doing this project?'

Realizing benefits concerns the start and end of any project. When we set the expected benefits, this means we set a 'background' for our project or an actual reason behind the initiation and execution of the project. And the benefits will surround each project's stage - all the time during the project life cycle. That's why project benefits management is about all the process groups of project management, including Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring&Controlling, and Closing.

Stakeholder identification entails conducting a comprehensive stakeholder analysis (rarely, it’s called Stakeholder identification method or Stakeholder identification technique). A group of people responsible for stakeholder identification creates a stakeholder table where stakeholder groups, project goals and ways to achieve these goals are included. Being a tool to conduct a complete stakeholder analysis within the stakeholder identification process, the stakeholder table allows answering the following questions:

• Who are the stakeholders?
• What are the interests and involvement of the stakeholders linked to current project?
• How can each stakeholder group impact on the project?
• What potential contribution can each stakeholder group deliver to the project?
• What are the willingness and capacity of each stakeholder group to participate in the project?

The stakeholder table lets organize all project stakeholders into groups, and each of the stakeholder groups has a detailed description of goals to be set before current stakeholder group. The stakeholder table is also used to comprehend the differences between stakeholders who affect a situation or the course of current project (active stakeholders) and stakeholders who may be affected by it (passive stakeholders).

Stakeholder mapping
Stakeholder mapping is a pragmatic system within the stakeholder management theory that helps project participants to get a big-picture view of the stakeholder groups and focus on specific elements of the complex network of stakeholders. The stakeholder mapping system should be based on the principles of accountability and transparency to create an environment which depends on the stakes each of the stakeholders holds and on how each stakeholder is related to other stakeholders.

As an independent process, stakeholder mapping allows defining stakeholders of a project and areas of interest and engagement. The stakeholder mapping process is aimed at ensuring all stakeholders are committed and advised throughout the change management process. The process helps keep stakeholders motivated and concerned. It also delivers wide buy-in and engagement and ensures all decisions are made in coordination with all parties involved. The stakeholder mapping process results in development of a stakeholder map.