The other day I had a brief conversation with a project manager who explained that their current project was nearly completed. He talked about the project initiation document.
Apparently, it hadn’t been signed-off.
In a whisper he confessed that it wasn’t finished.
His comments had me thinking …
Why do many project management practitioners and organisations place much importance on the project initiation document? Why is the PID a prominent feature of project initiation?
The Project Initiation Document
It seems that the project initiation document become an end in itself not a means to an end.
The project initiation document or PID is a term and product of PRINCE2. Yet the current edition of the PRINCE2 handbook does not describe the PID as a single document.
In fact, the second edition only mentions it in passing with 3 entries showing in the index. The first edition includes eleven references.
But, each makes it very clear that assembling the PID is about bringing together documentation produced during project initiation.
Has the project initiation document become an end in itself not a means to an end?
Should project managers and project sponsors stop thinking about the contents of the PID and focus on initiating the project?
How to Initiate a Project
The beginning of a project is an important time.
It is the time to make a preliminary assessment of opportunity, benefits, costs, and the likely impact on business.
It’s a time when questions are asked and possible solutions identified.
A time to challenge why the project is needed.
Project Initiation
Project initiation is also about scope and planning. What must the project deliver? When must it deliver? And, who needs to be involved?
Project initiation is about finding answers to these questions. Those questions that cannot be answered by one person.
It is the project manager’s job to find the answers. To ask the right questions and to ask the right people the right questions.
Only when those answers are known is project initiation complete.
Only then can the project confidently move to the next stage.
The Project Initiation Document
It is project documentation that holds the answers to these question. The initial business case and project plan. These explain why the project is needed and how things will happen. They record risk, define scope, and document the project organisation.
These useful documents are assembled into the project initiation document once the project manager has answer to all the important questions.
Why do you prepare the product initiation document?
Creative Commons images courtesy Zack Lee and Jane and Ben Danielsen.