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IN THIS CHAPTER

Gathering information and preparing the business case

Working on the project charter and generating documents

Choosing which proposed projects will move to the second stage of their life cycle

Tailoring approach, governance, and processes for the environment and work at hand

Identifying the models, methods, and artifacts for your project

If you typically deal with relatively short, inexpensive, straightforward projects, you may feel that the life of a project begins the moment your manager assigns it to you. You may not think it’s necessary to spend a lot of time deciding whether to perform the project, when such analysis will probably take more time than the project will to complete. And you may feel that, even if the project isn’t successful, no more than a few dollars and a couple of days will have been spent on it, so what’s the big deal?

Organizations today use projects as a major vehicle to maintain, support, enhance, and improve all facets of their operations. To help ensure the greatest possible benefits are realized from the resources they expend to support these projects, it’s essential that organizations undertake those projects that will both produce the greatest benefits when successfully completed and have the highest likelihood of achieving that successful completion.

The steps that comprise the first phase of the project life cycle (starting the project) are depicted in Figure 3-1 (check out Chapter 1 for information on the project life cycle). As the figure depicts (and this chapter explains):

1 Information about ideas for possible projects is identified and gathered.

2 Any information required to enable a thorough evaluation of a possible project that’s missing from the initial information gathered is added.

3 Projects that will proceed to the next phase of their life cycle (organizing and preparing) are chosen.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 3-1: The steps in Stage 1 of a project’s life cycle (starting the project).