Developing the Project Initiation Document

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Developing the Project Initiation Document

A project initiation document is simply a document that defines the nature and scope of a project. The document is prepared during the initiation stage of a project. In an improvement project (business case), a project initiation document summarizes all information that was gathered during the start-up phase (Pennartz, 2014). When preparing the document, it is important to revisit the questions. The main reason for revisiting the questions is to ensure that all the crucial information that was gathered about the case study included in the document and to avoid making invalid assumptions. The questions that are answered during the start-up stage relate to the objectives of the project, the resources required, the risks involved and the expected short-term and long-term impacts. Developing the project initiation document without revisiting the questions that were answered in the business case may lead to the inclusion of invalid assumptions in the document.

For instance, when implementing knowledge management system in an organization, a person in charge of developing the project initiation document might assume that it is the task of someone else to procure and install the software and hardware needed, yet it is his or her own task. In addition, a person in charge of developing a project initiation document may assume that there will be a full team to operate the knowledge management plan, yet the team is not yet recruited. As well, one may assume that all internal stakeholders in an organization have adequate knowledge to operate the knowledge management system. Such assumptions may lead to major problems in the implementation of a project. Such issues are analyzed and answers determined during the start-up stage of a project. Revisiting the questions answered in the business cases helps to avoid making such invalid assumptions and ensures that all the crucial information is included. In addition, revisiting the questions ensures that all assumptions made are agreed in the business case (Pennartz, 2014).

References

Pennartz, P. (2014). The Project Initiation Documentation (PID): A complete example of Project

Initiation Documentation according to PRINCE2. California: Rik Pennartz,