Let's get started!

Ok, you have a project or are thinking of a project right now. Maybe your boss has assigned you a project or an external client has contacted you for some work. Whatever it is the most important thing for you to do right now is make sure that you have an idea what the project is, what the desired results are and who has given the go signal for it. In short, we're in the Initiating phase of project management or simply that start of the project.

If you're dealing with clients that are external to your organization, you may draft a proposal that gives a brief summary of the points discussed above. In addition, the proposal usually has a sheet for signatories that say that this proposal has been approved to be offered to the client and has been approved by the client.

If you are going to start with a project in your own organization, you still need a document and most people call it the project brief. The name of the document itself is self explanatory as it is brief and describes the project.

This document is important. It may not be your project management plan yet but it is vital for different reasons. In my previous post I had already mentioned that every company has limited resources. We're all in competitive industries and we want to succeed. We need to optimize what resources we have in producing the best possible results.

The project brief/proposal is important because a project requires resources. These resources will be utilized for Project A rather than say Project B. Thus, we need to make sure that Project A will produce a better result than Project B. We need approval that Project A is what the company needs now. This approval usually comes from the Project Sponsor. Basically, your project sponsor has the authority to approve resource allocation for your project. The Project Sponsor has agreed that deliverables of Project A will produce positive results.

In order for you, the project manager, to get that approval you had better make sure that your document contains a brief description of the project's deliverables, the timeline or how long the project may take and the resources needed to achieve it. It is also good to include some information on the background of why this project was created and what benefits it will give once done.

Clear warnings signs to heed in the Initiating phase are the following:

1. No Project Sponsor - Nobody knows who wants this project. If you can't find anyone who wants this project done, why do it in the first place? How on earth will you get the approval to pull resources into this project?

2. Weak/No background or reason for the project - If you do not have an important enough reason to do the project, it will get pushed aside if something "better" comes along. You need to know why you are doing this project. If you don't know why you're doing this project, you won't know what you need to do.

3. No timeline - You need to have a goal of when this project should be finished. Some projects are very time sensitive and lose their effectiveness if the timeline is not followed. Even if the launch date is tentative, having a target pushes you and the team.

Every company probably has it's own template and different processes but the gist of the initiating phase is the same: approval to go ahead.