2009, Martin Training Associates, LLC; 866-922-3122; Ver. 4.0 Page 3 of 3

PM Process Group: Initiating

Prepared By

Sponsor Date Issued Project Name

Strategic Alignment What are the strategic reasons for the project? This is often confused with project objectives. Make sure the business case is strategic in nature. It should address broader organizational goals that the project ties into. Strategic Goals  How does this project connect to the organization’s strategic goals?  What impact will the successful completion of this project have on the business?

Scope Overview This should be short. A summary sentence or two on what the project is all Project Objectives about.  What are the 3-4 outcomes you expect from this project? This is the group that actually receives the final deliverable. In most cases it is not the end user. (The end user is a stakeholder.) This section will need to be looked at carefully in combination with the final deliverable category Project Customers - are they consistent? It should also be reviewed versus life cycle stages. Are the project customers the next group in the life cycle stage?  Who will receive the final deliverable from the project? The final output from the Execution phase. This is what gets handed off to the project customer. Make sure this is a work title of what will be produced. If it's a description, they probably have included customer Final Deliverable(s) requirements in the final deliverable name.  What are the final outputs from the project that will be delivered to the project customer? Needs are what drive the requirements. A need is a problem the customer wants to solve or an opportunity the customer wants to take advantage of. Customer Need This is often confused with requirements. Make sure it addresses the basic problem or opportunity that the customer has.  What is the problem the final deliverable will solve?

This is what the customer says he/she wants from the final deliverable. Could be features or functions of the deliverable or just desired characteristics. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of requirements - Customer Requirements just the highlights.  What desired features and functions have already been collected?  What do we know about the customer requirements for the final deliverable? The key satisfiers for the customer. The criteria they will use to determine if they are satisfied or not. The hard part here is getting it into the customer's perspective, in the customer's language. Try to be as definitive Customer Acceptance Criteria as possible.  What are the 3-4 key measurements that will determine customer satisfaction? Scope Boundaries What specifically is included and excluded in the project? There may be an opportunity to coordinate efforts as well as share information and resources. If the projects are in conflict, waste and Project Overlaps inefficiency can be reduced by early identification.  Are there any other projects that overlap with this one?  If so, how? This will be used to help configure the initial team. Stakeholders are any people or groups that will be affected by the project. Stakeholders  Who affects or is affected by the project?  What stake does each one have in the project?

Quality Requirements This is the organization's tolerance for risk, or how much risk the sponsor will find to be acceptable. It is not a measure of real risk. A high risk limit means there is a high tolerance for risk. If there is a low tolerance for scope risk, then if there are technical risks, the group knows it will need to continue to select countermeasures until they have driven the risk down Risk Tolerance below the limit (if possible). Biggest problem here is confusing limits with actual risk ratings.  What is the maximum amount of risk, or risk limit, which can be tolerated on this project, for not meeting the customer’s acceptance criteria? (low, medium, high) This is the prioritization within the project between scope (more features), schedule (getting it done earlier) and cost (doing it cheaper). This is a Project Priorities within the project set of priorities, not the across project priority.  Prioritize “scope”, “schedule” and “budget” and determine how trade-offs will be made for the project? This is an opportunity for the sponsor to specify which deliverables the management team would like to review (provide input to before its delivered) or approve (cannot go ahead until you get a sign-off). The project team will have an opportunity to expand this list in Planning to add Reviews & Approvals Required reviews they would like to participate in or that may be required by functional or resource managers.  What deliverables do you or other members of management need to review or approve before they are handed off to the next customer in the process?

Communications Requirements The sponsor specifies what status reports he/she will want to see during the Execution phase. You don't need to list all standard reports, just those that Status Reports Required are above beyond what is standard.  Are there any types of communications that need to be included in the project plan?

Resource Limits

These are the people assigned to the project by the sponsor. There does not need to be a team assigned. There does need to be a project leader assigned. Team Assignments  Who will lead the project?  Who will be on the team?

The deadline for the final deliverable goes here. The biggest problem here is listing major milestones with dates instead of just the deadline for the Deadlines final deliverable.  Is there a deadline for the final deliverable?

Budget Is there a budget limit for the project?

Is there a limit on how much internal effort can be expended on the Staff Effort Limit project?

Are there any other limitations that the project team must live within, other Resource Constraints than those outlined above? This is really related to any constraints in terms of how the project is done.