Project Management Process Group: Initiating | 10 Tips for Initiating Projects

There are five different project management process groups. These five groups consist of five different steps in project management. Each project management process group helps to begin, execute, and finish the project as required. Every project management process group defines the timing, the inputs and the outputs of a project. One project management process group comes after another in sequential order. The first one of the project management process group activities is the initiating process.

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What is the initiating process group? What is its role as a Project Management Process Group? Read the article to learn more about the Initiating Process Group Activities.

What are the Activities in the First Project Management Process Group: Initiating

In Project management process groups the initiating process group activities mainly aim to initiate a project successfully. They also ensure that planning process group activities are triggered once initiation of the project is complete. We are going to review the initiating process group activities one-by-one in this article.

In the CAPM certification training, you will find more detailed information about the initiating project management process group, as well as other process group activities.

1-Selecting the project manager in initiating project management process group:

It is the first activity of this project management process group. Once a project is determined to be initiated, the sponsor of the project, in other words, who will financially support the project, needs to trigger regarding steps and procedures. Assignment of a project manager to the project is one of the first steps. Since project manager will be the main responsible and coordinator of the project management activities. In the online PMP training, you can find more detailed information about the roles of the Project Manager.

2-Determining the company culture and existing systems in initiating project management process group:

Organizational structure of the company, tools, procedures and policies will affect how the project will progress. For instance, if there is a procedure for assigning a task to a project team member, this needs to be determined during initiating.

3-Collecting processes, procedures, and historical information in initiating project management process group:

Processes that will be used to manage the project will be gathered. If there had been a similar project in the past or if there are lessons learned that might be used in the current project, these are searched in the organizational process assets of the company.

4-Dividing large projects to phases in initiating project management process group:

If a project is very large, dividing it into smaller phases will ease to determine project objectives, management, and coordination. Also monitoring and controlling project activities will be less complex. Therefore, big and long lasting projects should be evaluated whether it is possible to execute these projects in phases.

5-Understanding the business case in initiating project management process group:

This is very important. Because the business case of a project defines why the project is initiated. At the end of the project, if the project does not serve for the reason that it was initiated for, it will be considered as failed. Therefore, while setting project objectives, the business case of the project should be kept in mind all the time.

6-Uncovering initial requirements and risks in initiating project management process group:

Customer requirements are collected and later in the planning processes, these requirements are detailed. Similarly, project risks that are visible during the initiating stage should be documented. If there are any response strategies, those should be documented as well. Later in planning processes, the risks about the project and their response strategies will be evaluated in detail.

7-Creating measurable objectives in initiating project management process group:

A project objective must not be subjective. For instance, “we will create a camera for a smartphone that will take good pictures”. Is this a measurable objective? No. Because a good photo for one person may not be good enough for another. But if you set the objective as “we will create a camera for a smartphone that can take 32 Megapixels photos”. This is measurable because 32 megapixels is a quantitative objective of the project.

8-Developing the project charter in initiating project management process Group:

Project charter involves high-level information about the project. The sponsor is accountable for the creation of the project charter but the project managers can prepare the project charter in a project.

9-Identifying stakeholders in initiating project management process group:

This is another important activity of the initiating project management process group. Powerful and influencing stakeholders might affect the project progress drastically. Therefore, stakeholder expectations and requirements must be documented and managed properly throughout the project for the sake of the project success.

10-Developing the stakeholder management strategy in initiating project management process group:

Each stakeholder will have varying expectations and requirements from a project. Also, each stakeholder will require different approaches. Appropriate stakeholder management strategy must be developed especially for powerful and influencing stakeholders of the project.

After completing the initiating project management process group activities, the planning phase is triggered.