Lesson 07: Starting Up a Project Process

Starting up a Project is the first process we run in the project. Can you explain its purpose? What about its two main outputs?

Based on AXELOS PRINCE2^® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS. All rights reserved.
Note: PRINCE2 2017 edition is now called PRINCE2 6th edition.

00:08 – The first process is Starting Up a Project Process
00:11 – So this is the first of the 7 processes
00:14 – And we have already seen these in the introduction lesson
00:18 – I will use the same layout as before because this makes it easier for you
00:22 – And the 7 processes are shown here; for example, SU, IP, CS, and so on
00:28 – So you can see how these relate to each other, that makes it easier
00:32 – We begin with Starting Up a Project Process and this is a pre-project process
00:37 – And if you look, we will first look at the purpose of this process
00:43 – So the main purpose is to ask the question, “Do we have a worthwhile and viable project?”
00:50 – Now let me give you some context to make it easy to understand that
00:54 – Let’s say we have 10 ideas, but only 2 actually will become projects
00:59 – So what happens to the other 8?
01:02 – Well, some of them could be too risky or a poor return on investment or not linked to the company strategy or just plain crazy
01:10 – So the objective here is also, as well as identifying good projects, is to prevent poor projects from starting up
01:20 – Then we document our findings of this good idea
01:24 – So we give a brief overview of it and we put this brief overview in a document we call the Project Brief
01:31 – And this contains all the information the Project Board will need to make their decision
01:37 – Now let’s have a look at the objectives of this process
01:42 – The first objective then is to ensure that there is a business justification for initiating the project
01:48 – So really business reasons, so why are we doing the project?
01:53 – This is documented in the outline Business Case part of the Project Brief
01:58 – It can be a quarter of a page overview, actually it doesn’t matter how much it is, but it’s got to be simple and it can give a simple return on investment idea
02:07 – The second objective is what is the best way to do this project?
02:13 – So, what is the best approach, the project approach
02:16 – So for example, should we develop everything in-house, should we outsource it, a mixture of this?
02:22 – Perhaps rent an application or rent a product?
02:26 – And lessons from other projects and speaking to specialists will actually help a lot to come up with a good project approach
02:36 – The third objective, who do we need in the project? So, the project management team
02:41 – Well, we have to have an executive and they are there to keep an eye on the value for money
02:47 – Then the user representatives, so they are there to give the requirements and also their expected benefits
02:54 – The supplier representatives, so they are there to represent the people who will actually do the work and have the skills to do that
03:01 – And the Project Manager
03:03 – At this stage, we are just focused on the high-level roles
03:07 – And we will deal with the team members much later in the project
03:13 – The next objective is, what are we going to create?
03:17 – So here we write our project product description
03:20 – And this can be like a one to three-page document that describes the main output of the project
03:26 – So it gives a good image of the main output and it sets stakeholder expectations, which is a good idea to set it correctly at this point in the project
03:43 – So once the Project Brief is complete, we can think about the next process which is the IP process
03:49 – And this is where the project is broken down and planned
03:52 – And this can take a few days or even a few weeks depending on the size of the project
03:59 – So, here we have a Stage Plan
04:01 – And this will be a day-to-day plan for the Project Manager to use during the Initiation Stage
04:08 – I also call this the Planning Stage because this is what’s done there
04:12 – So the Stage Plan includes deliverables, resources, and time and cost information for the Initiation Stage
04:22 – Once the Project Brief and the Stage Plan are ready, the Project Manager will send a request to the Project Board
04:30 – If the idea is poor, then the Project Manager can also give their opinion
04:36 – But the decision to turn the idea into a project is for the Project Board
04:42 – Now that was a quick overview of the Starting Up a Project process
04:47 – Now to put this into more context, the Project Mandate is the trigger for the project
04:53 – And in an organization, we can have many ideas floating around
04:57 – However, somebody with authority suggests an idea for a project
05:01 – And the format of this can be an e-mail, a document, a slide, minutes of a meeting, even a telephone call
05:08 – The contents can vary a lot and it all depends on where the idea comes from
05:14 – However, the more information which we have in the Project Mandate, then the less work that we have to do to create the Project Brief
05:23 – So what kind of information would you expect to have in a Project Mandate document?
05:29 – Well, if a friend comes to you with an investment idea, your questions will be what, why, how much, what’s the return on investment, what are the risks, and don’t tell my wife yet
05:42 – And projects need almost the same information or the same information
05:46 – So we need the what, we need the why, we need to know how much it will cost, the expected benefits
05:54 – And we need a person to take ownership of the idea and PRINCE2 calls this the Executive
06:00 – Now I will take you through all the different activities done in this process
06:05 – You don’t have to know all the activities, just understand them, that will be enough
06:10 – And all these activities help to gather information for the Project Brief
06:15 – You already know the contents of the Project Brief, so this will make it very, very easy to understand
06:21 – So, the first activity is to appoint the Executive and the Project Manager
06:25 – And this is done by the CPC, well, they appoint the Executive and they can appoint the Project Manager
06:31 – The executive is focused on value for money
06:34 – This is how they think, this is how their minds work
06:38 – And then the Executive or the CPC can appoint the Project Manager
06:42 – And remember, this is an important relationship between the Executive and the Project Manager
06:48 – This relationship must work for the project to succeed
06:53 – The second activity is capture previous lessons
06:56 – Now the Project Manager encourages everybody, all the stakeholders in the project, to bring in lessons, gather them
07:04 – And this is also one of the seven good practices that we have to do, remember? The seven principles
07:10 – Gathering lessons that we can use in the project
07:13 – The third activity is design and appoint the project management team
07:18 – Remember? We have three roles in the Project Board and the Project Manager, perhaps the change request responsible, and so on
07:25 – But we stick to the high level of the project management team
07:29 – The fourth activity has two parts - we have the Business Case and the Project Product Description
07:35 – So we prepare the outline Business Case and this is done by the Executive
07:40 – The Project Manager can assist the Executive to do this, but it’s the responsibility of the Executive to do the outline Business Case
07:49 – Then the Project Product Description - well, the Project Manager will facilitate this
07:53 – They will invite the users, the business analysts, and the specialist and this should create a very easy to read, one to three-page description of the main output
08:04 – So, make sure it is easy to read
08:06 – This is an example of the Project Brief from the Pen Project, this is a sample project
08:12 – So we can see the project definition, the project product description here is attached as a separate document
08:19 – We have the project approach, the outline Business Case, which is very simple
08:23 – The project management team is also attached, but that can be just a list of names as well
08:28 – And as you can see, this is brief
08:30 – So a good name is a Project Brief
08:33 – The fifth activity is to select the project approach and assemble the Project Brief
08:38 – Now the Project Manager normally will depend on specialists to choose the best approach because those are the people who have knowledge to do this
08:47 – Then the Project Manager will gather all the information so far and put this into a document, which we call the Project Brief
08:54 – And the last activity is to create a plan for the Initiation Stage
09:00 – So here, it’ll be a plan to plan workshops with users and specialists,
09:05 – Plan the times for preparing all the product descriptions, which can take a lot of work
09:10 – And there’ll be other deliverables as well like updating the Business Case and writing the Benefits document as well
09:18 – So now, the work in this process is done
09:21 – The Project Manager has transformed the mandate into a Project Brief
09:26 – And there’s only one thing left to do and that’s to request to initiate a project
09:31 – So the Project Manager sends a request to the Project Board and hands over the documents, the Project Brief and the Stage Plan
09:39 – So there’s nothing left now for the Project Manager to do except for perhaps tidy up
09:46 – Now is the decision time for the Project Board
09:50 – They will review the documents and decide
09:53 – So they will study all parts of the Project Brief like the outline Business Case, the main product description, and it’s relationship with the strategy of the organization
10:04 – And then they will make a decision
10:08 – So let’s have a quick look at the inputs and outputs of the starting of a project process
10:13 – So our first input is the Project Mandate; this is the trigger for the project
10:17 – The more information we have, the less work to do
10:20 – And then the lessons
10:21 – The Project Manager will make sure that as much lessons are gathered from previous projects as possible
10:28 – And that will be helpful in the current project
10:31 – And the outputs are the Project Brief, which is written for the Project Board, and the Stage Plan, which will help to run the Initiation Stage
10:40 – And the last thing we do then is to send a request to initiate a project
10:46 – So that’s it for the Starting Up a Project process, which is also known as a pre-project process
10:52 – So the main purpose again is to ask the question, do we have a viable and worthwhile project, and then document this in the Project Brief

What do we do after we’re done with the Starting up a Project process?

Lesson 07: Starting Up a Project Process

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