The following are project artifacts necessary to initiate a project:
- Project Charter
- Project Statement of Work (SOW)
- High-Level Business Case
- Enterprise Environmental Factors
- Organizational Process Assets
Project Charter
During the initiation of a project, project managers should create or help create initial project documents. A Project Charter is traditionally developed by a requesting organization (business, technology or functional areas, for example) to provide background information about a project and to authorize project managers to initiate a project; however, in many cases, it is the project manager who helps develop the Charter when one has not yet been created for a project. During the planning of a project, a Project Charter typically becomes an input to standard project management documents or plans. The creation, update, integration, and application of project management plans are typically encouraged by accepted project management standards.
According to accepted project management standards, a Project Charter formally authorizes project managers to commence and manage a project, as well as use organizational resources for project management activities. When a project is initiated, it should have been officially approved. In other words, projects should have been part of a prioritization process – progressing from ‘unapproved project requests’ to ‘approved projects’ during a concept or business definition phase.
When initiating a project, there will be barely any project artifacts that would have been generated from project management activities. However, typical project artifacts encountered during the initiation of a project may include project statements of work (SOW), high-level business cases, agreements, and organizational process assets that altogether help project managers or requesting organizations with the development of a Project Charter. Collectively and upon approval by the sponsoring entity, these project artifacts (which are inputs to developing the Project Charter) constitute the initiation of a project. A template provided at the end of this chapter contains common elements of traditional Project Charters.
Excerpts from:
How to Initiate a Project and More, Dowdell, 2017