Project Initiation Management
Appoint and provide the project manager with formal approval and governance guidelines for the project and the application of organizational resources to project activities.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for Project Initiation Management at each level of maturity.
- 2Basic
- Practice
- Develop a project charter/project initiation document for key projects to include things such as project scope briefs, project governance structures, and funding and resourcing.
- Outcome
- The documentation approach is delivering consistency in project initiation.
- Metric
- Number and percentage of projects with a project charter/initiation document in place.
- Practice
- Seek project approval in accordance with organizational and programme or portfolio management practices, as appropriate for key projects.
- Outcome
- Authorization to expend resources on the project is legal and has the support of the organization.
- Metric
- Number and percentage of projects where formal project approval is granted.
- 3Intermediate
- Practices
- Define and document a project charter/project initiation document (using available templates) to agreed standards.
- The charter will include a business case and rationale for the project.
- Outcome
- The rationale and business case for the project make gaining stakeholder support and commitment easier.
- Metric
- Number and percentage of project charters/initiation documents that include rationale and business cases.
- Practice
- Review project approvals criteria and ensure that project requests provide sufficient information to enable informed decisions by the approvals board.
- Outcome
- Project approvals cycles are shrunk and are increasingly consistent and predictable.
- Metrics
- Number and percentage of project proposals approved or rejected without requests for additional or clarifying information from the proposer.
- Elapsed time from submission to decision announcement.
- 4Advanced
- Practice
- Use systematic approaches, templates, and automation to assist with project approvals submissions.
- Outcome
- Comprehensive standard documents assist decision-makers locate the information they need when making the decisions.
- Metrics
- Number and percentage of project proposals approved or rejected without requests for additional or clarifying information from the proposer.
- Elapsed time from submission to decision announcement.
- Practice
- Review project approvals criteria and ensure that project risks are expressed in the required formats and that requests provide sufficient information to enable informed decisions by the approvals board.
- Outcome
- The additional level of granularity provided enhances the decision-making process resulting in increased project success in all projects.
- Metrics
- Number and percentage of project proposals approved or rejected without requests for additional or clarifying information from the proposer.
- Elapsed time from submission to decision announcement.
- 5Optimized
- Practice
- Develop and maintain a programme of continuous improvement for the management of project initiation that follows best-known industry practice, research ideas, and the advice of vendors.
- Outcome
- Future projects benefit from the learnings of previous projects, from business ecosystem stakeholder feedback, and from emerging research ideas.
- Metrics
- Number and percentage of projects with a project charter/initiation document in place.
- Number and percentage of changes made to project charter/initiation document based on lessons learned.
- Practices
- Monitor ongoing risk, quality and project progress-to-plan analysis — specifically, increase quality checks if early artefacts are of a low quality but relax them if quality is very high.
- Similarly, if someone's estimates are consistently low or high, apply a corrective multiplier to any remaining tasks estimated by the same worker(s).
- Outcome
- Project processes are dynamically reconfigured based on monitoring activities.
- Metric
- The number of projects where plans were adjusted based on the quality of early stage artefacts, and also on timeliness, perceived risk, and so forth.