Getting Started

CHAPTER

Getting Started

1

Getting Started

PRINCE2® in a Nutshell - 16

Getting Started This first chapter in the book is akin to starting a project. It is important to establish some high-level understanding of the project’s goals (Outcomes and therefore Benefits) and how this fits into the bigger scheme of things. So we look at the need to establish that at the outset and explain the Why and the What and follow with How of gaining this understanding As in life, we need to be able to crawl first, then we can look at walking and finally running. Too often change initiatives are entered into without this grounding and hence the often used phrase “this is what we need, lets get on and deliver it” Very dangerous as often we do not really understand the “need” and so how can we therefore get to “develop and deliver”.

Getting Started


1.1 PreProject Before we can even have a project of course we need to understand and evaluate the Strategic fit of this project. Does this project fit within our overall organization’s vision, strategy? We need to understand this BEFORE we launch into the project more formally. It is very important that projects are aligned to the organization’s strategy, its mission and vision. If projects are run that are not aligned, there could be serious repercussions for the organization.

Also, it is important that we at least have a clear objective. If we want to travel from one place to another, we need to know the starting point and, of course, where we want to end up. A plane takes off from an airport with a destination already understood! How we get there of course is the journey that will be influenced by many things. What we have in place and so how we deal with these is key. In this case we have PRINCE2.

So at the outset, the Corporate team need to review the proposed project and its strategic fit and also whether there is the budget and resources to commit to the project. The Project Executive’s responsibility is to ensure there are funds.

Once the project has been agreed in principle, any details understood so far are provided as a Terms of Reference, our first document (Management Products PRINCE2 label) which is used as the Project Mandate to kick off PRINCE2 and start the project. Now you may well be a project that is part of a programme, this will be the trigger for your project in that particular tranche in the programme. This launches the first PRINCE2 process, Starting Up A Project.

Getting Started


1.2 Starting Up a Project

Fig 1.1 Starting Up a Project Process Flow

1.21 The purpose of this process

To ensure that the prerequisites are in place for initiating a project: - do we have a viable and worthwhile project?

Getting Started


The first thing that happens is we get a trigger from Corporate or Programme with the Terms of Reference that is the Project Mandate which then triggers off the first process within PRINCE2 which is “Starting Up A Project” (SU).

1.22 Assign Roles The real point here of a project is to get some definition, some understanding of what the project is actually about and put some “formality” around it because the Project Mandate might be on a single sheet of paper might be quite a complex document. What we need to do now is unravel all that, put a high level view of what the project is about so the business can understand that and for the people going to build it, the suppliers, so we can all understand and agree what it’s about at high level. Usually the first role on board is the Project Executive. The Project Executive will usually will be appointed by Corporate.

Now if this project is being initiated from the Project Executive’s particular department, that is its their budget, they may well have appointed themselves, said to Corporate, look this is what we said we were going to do, so we’re going to kick this off right now and therefore they will have already appointed themselves to a certain extent. As the project will actually need the Project Executive straight away the role description will be probably be something they have got already or come from Corporate, or maybe from the Project Management Office (PMO), about what they actually need to do to appoint themselves.

To help the Project Executive of course we need the role of a Project Manager. The appointment for this role may be by the Project Executive or Corporate/ Programme. This role is going to be doing most of the work, it’s really the Project Manager who is going to coordinate the environment for the delivery, not do the builds, (shouldn’t do really but sometimes they do), but to control the environment

Getting Started


for the Project Executive. The project is still not totally formal yet, the project’s still in starting up mode, we’re trying to formalize most information. So usually the first thing the Project Manager will need to do is just to put some form of document together to record things in a Daily Log, and usually a very good idea that if you’ve got lessons to be learned from other projects is to have a Lessons Log. These logs will be trapping capturing issues and any other lessons from previous projects and programmes, from their experience, or other people’s experience about the project that we’re running here.

1.23 Define the Project Product Right, now the next thing useful thing to understand is what the project is about, what the project is delivering, and this is the Project Product Description, what are we delivering here? This is usually good idea. This is the high end of the scope, what is this whole project about? A new application or document and linked to that will be two important piece of information - What will be the Quality Expectations of your overall solution, and linked to that will be the Acceptance Criteria for that for the overall solution, very important. So we know what the solution is going to be from a quality point of view and how we’re going to accept that. Important that these details are known at the outset so the Supplier can advise if Viable or not.

1.24 The Business Case (Outline) Now from a business perspective they need to know really what this whole project is about, because at the end of the day this is going to be their project, so the document they need is the

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Business Case as a reference for their governance. At this

point it’s just an outline, however, there are some key points in the Business Case are:

Getting Started


1. Why are we doing this - reasons, rational, what is/not happening 2. What we expect to get out of it - Benefit 3. Both the above linked to the Vision

We also need to understand any risks that could be “showstoppers” from a Business perspective, Major Risks. They will also be trapped in the Daily Log so that you will eventually transfer them later into the Risk Register when you move the project into the process which is Initiating a Project. However, before that we have to go to Directing a Project for the Project Board’s authorization to Initiate.

So the business case will also have other information included to support the business decisions. Time-frames and Budget are very important. How long has the business decided (at this point in time) to allocate to the project and also how much money, the Budget, has been awarded the project. This information may be based on research, feasibility studies, previous projects and so forth. It is very useful to note that it is as the business understands it “At this point in time”!!

There should also be information about the “Return on Investment” because the business will also need to evaluate and decide if the project is still worth the investment throughout. Is it still Desirable (investment and strategically).

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Business Options (how much should/do I need to spend linked to quality

needed) should also be documented. It is a key document, and like many others, will change throughout the project. Maybe just a little, maybe a lot.

Getting Started


1.25 Organization (Roles) It is a good idea to get some idea of what the organizational structure might be, what sort of project team do I need to have and therefore link to that the roles and responsibilities, understanding what sort of solution I am going to be building. During this process it is more about the Project Management team structure, Change Authority (how will issues/change requests be handled - who), will the project need a comprehensive Project Support (or maybe small enough for the Project Manager to handle, and Project Assurance. Does the project need it, can/will the Project Board take on that responsibility? Whatever the project is about, what sort of team do I need to have? What we’re trying to do here, of course, is understand whether this project is going to be worthwhile and viable. Is it worthwhile spending money on it, and viability, can it be built (within the constraints of Time, Cost, Quality). That’s why we’re doing this in this particular phase, get a high-level view is it worthwhile for the business to run the project and look at can it be built from a functional build perspective.

1.26 The Project Approach The other thing we need to understand is the Project Approach. Now curiously enough in PRINCE2 the Project Approach is about “how to develop the solution, how to build, deliver the products”; The objective - the Project Product. Really this is the Development Approach in a project! Anyway, PRINCE2 uses the phrase Project Approach!! This is defined in this process to have some understanding of the different ways the project could develop the project product. It may be done in house, off the shelf, a bespoke solution or some other way. I recommend you watch the video

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Business options where I explain the link between this and

the Project Approach. The defining at this point will most likely be collaborative within the Project Board.

Getting Started


1.27 Preparing to Request the Board to Initiate All this is collectively put together in the Project Brief, because before we can proceed to the next process, the next part of the project, we need to have a sign-off, an official approval by the Project Board. This is the Governance in place. Also what we need to do is let them know what we are planning to do next, because this process, Starting Up A Project (set of activities) is usually a short time frame - a couple of days maybe a couple of weeks.

However, the next process, Initiating a Project, is going to be bigger, longer, as we have got to plan the project in a lot more detail. So we need to produce the Initiation Stage Plan for the Initiating a Project process, also Stage 1 of the project. The Initiation Stage Plan and the Project Brief are taken to the next process, Directing a Project, and that now kicks off this process which now runs throughout the rest of the project.

1.28 Chapter Summary It is important at the outset of the project, from a formal perspective, to establish a proper and agreed understanding as to the overall project objective (Worthwhile -Business) and whether this is attainable (Viable - Technical).

In this chapter we have looked at the bigger view, Strategic, of the change, and see how this fits from the Organization’s view, and once that has a “Green Light” then we looked at how the project initially, in Starting Up A Project, puts that understanding into formal form, Business Case and ultimately, the Project Brief, so establish this information and agreement, and take this information to the next process Directing a Project for Business Governance and approval to proceed.

Getting Started


In all projects it is vital that we understand the overall picture before we proceed, make sure everyone that needs to know and understand provides that understanding at the outset. This means ensuring that the Supplier of the solution is, within reasonable bounds at this point in time, able to deliver to the Business needs. Crawl before we can walk, before we can run!

1.29 Whiteboard Drawing from the Classroom Click on the image Fig 1.2 below for a full version for the drawing

Fig 1.2: Starting Up a Project - drawn version

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to be taken to the on-line video