Computing and Information Technology
Project Management Process
Project Initiation Process and Procedures

The Project Initiation form is an easy-to-follow vehicle for collecting the information C&IT needs to obtain approval for initiating projects within any of the C&IT Departments. The purpose of this document is to offer some help to completing the form.

There are two separate parts to the Project Initiation Form:

  1. Part I is named Project Initiation Demographic and Business Case Information. As per the instructions below, this information is provided by the staff member who is requesting the work.
  2. Part II is named Project Initiation Form Project Lead Sections. As per the instructions below, this information is provided by the Project Lead who is assigned to lead the project.

General Steps Overall

The following box is a list of the general steps to follow in creating the form.

Step No. Step Description
1. Read the Definition of a Project document to determine that the work requested is a Project.
2. If there is any question as to whether the work is a project and you don't know who to contact at C&IT, contact the C&IT Help Desk for assistance, at (313) 577-4778 or helpdesk@wayne.edu.
3. The employee requesting the work completes Part I of the form that covers the demographic component of the project request. If necessary, collaborate with the C&IT contact to gather information for this section.
4. The employee creates a Call Tracker entry to record the request.
5. After completing Part I and the Call Tracker entry, send the form electronically to your contact at C&IT.
6. A C&IT Lead will complete the Scope section in Part II, the Technical section in Part III, and the Work Breakdown Structure. If necessary, the C&IT Lead will collaborate with the employee who submitted the request.
7. A C&IT Lead will obtain the signatures necessary for approval to commence project work.

Guidelines to Completing the Form

This next sections identify the guidelines to follow in completing the form and give some helpful hints for each of the sections of the form.

Part I – Project Initiation Form Requestor Information sections.

The information in this section should for the most part be self-explanatory and is completed by the work requestor (With the exception of the lines relating to Technical Process Prepared By). The work requestor should provide a detailed description of what is being requested. The most important thing to remember is to clearly and thoroughly describe the items in the business case section in order to make the best case for why the work is being requested and why it should be done.

Part II, Project Initiation Scope Documentation sections.

When completing the individual categories in Part II, it is important to collaborate with the requestor on creating the information required as well as getting approval of the information contained in the document. This will ensure that there is agreement on what the objectives of the project or work will be.

Part II, Section A – Project Scope

Project scope refers to the magnitude of the effort to complete a project and is completed by the C&IT Project Lead assigned to the request. Project Scope provides the basis for future project decisions and is of singular importance to the project because it sets the overall guidelines as to the size of the project. The content of this statement, at a minimum, will include the following:

  1. Project Results/Completion Criteria : What will be created in terms of deliverables (and their characteristics) and/or what constitutes a successful phase completion.
  2. Content of the Project : What is and is not included in the work to be done. The purpose of including what is not included in the project is to make an emphatic statement that is required in some situations. For example, assume that the scope of the project is to create new functionality that provides more speedy registration for students in the automotive engineering program at the Macomb campus only that is tied in directly to a system at an eastside automotive facility. It may be necessary to detail in the scope that students registering in this program at any other campus are restricted to use the existing registration and not the new registration system because of the direct tie the new system has between the Macomb campus and the eastside automotive facility.

Part II, Section B – Assumptions.

Identify any assumptions that are essential to the on-going progress and success of the project and should be thought of in terms of items that affect the feasibility of executing the project. They may be relevant to the project budget, cost/benefit, schedule, estimating techniques, technology used, staffing, work space, subject matter experts, etc. Some examples include:

  1. Suzy Smith is a subject matter expert from Finance and will be available one-half day per week to validate test results for the last two months of the project covering the period from 10/01/xx through 12/01/xx.
  2. The three new servers that are required to host the application databases files will be here by January 10, 20xx and will be operational for our testing needs by January 20, 20xx.
  3. The project staff will be housed in the new technology center on the third floor.

Part II, Section C – Goals and Objectives.

Project objectives are used to establish performance goals or planned levels of accomplishment stated as measurable objectives that can be compared to actual results. Performance measures should be derived for each goal. These measures can be quantified to see if the project is meeting the University's objectives. Project performance can then be traced directly to the University's goals, mission, and objectives, enabling participants to correct areas that are not meeting those objectives. Objectives are communicated in the Project Initiation Form to ensure that all stakeholders understand the organization's needs that the project addresses. Some examples include:

  1. The electronic transmission of grades to each student's mailbox is another step in providing self service to students.
  2. The implementation of the new data mart and view should eliminate 100% of the mismatched information that is currently being collected from the seven different locations.
  3. Implementing the electronic imaging application to handle Purchase Orders should reduce the amount of time staff currently takes to find the paper copy by 50%.

Part III, Project Initiation Technical Process sections.

When completing the individual categories in Part III, it is important to collaborate with the requestor on creating the information required as well as getting approval of the information contained in the document. This will ensure that there is agreement on what the objectives of the project or work will be.

Part III, Section A – Constraints.

All projects have constraints, and these need to be defined from the outset. Identify in this section the constraints that could have a negative impact on the progress and success of the project. The different types of constraints include:

  1. Time constraints. For example, the project has to be completed by the end of the year.
  2. Budget constraints. For example, the work breakdown structure does not provide for any contingency money that could be used for project change control. As a result, the schedule and amount of resources cannot change.
  3. Resource Limits. For example, the project timeline will be negatively impacted if the resources from the third party do not complete on time the project they are currently working on.
  4. Technical Limits. For example, the staff does not have the expertise in this programming language and will slow down the progress of the project until they build up their expertise.

Part III, Section B – Approach.

Identify in this section how the work will be done. It may include items such as:

  1. The software technology that will be used.
  2. The hardware technology that will be used.
  3. The coding structure that will be used.
  4. A description of the overall steps that will be followed to complete the project.
  5. The types of resources that will be used.

Part III, Section C – External Resources Required.

This section is self explanatory.

Part III, Section D – Internal Resources Required.

This section is self explanatory.

Part III, Section E – Schedule.

Identify the project's start and end dates as per the Work Breakdown Structure.

If there are any unusual estimating techniques (or none used at all) or if there is an elaborate estimating schedule used to compute these dates, describe what was done in this section. For example, if no Work Breakdown Structure was created, state that fact here and state the dates are the best guess.

Part III, Section F – Milestones.

The main milestones ensure the project progresses satisfactorily and can be found in the WBS. Milestones are key checkpoints that occur chronologically during the project and ensure that the products and services delivered meet the project objectives in the time frame established by senior management in the Project Initiation document.

Part III, Section G – Training.

The items to consider for training include the following. And as a helpful hint, do not forget the include the cost of training in any estimating that is being done for the project overall.

  1. Identify any technical training needed for project resources.
  2. Identify any training needed for non-technical project resources.
  3. Identify any training required for user of the application. Do not underestimate the volume of work that is required to prepare training materials and prepare to training staff.
  4. Identify any on-going training that is required after the project has been completed.

Part III, Section H – User Functional Procedures.

Identify the user procedures that will need to be created as an activity on the project. It is often the case that the nature and extent of user procedures are not known at the early stage of a project, especially before it has been approved and real work has commenced. However, it is also often the case that little attention is given to the importance and the volume of work that is required in creating functional procedures. This section is intended to give a high level account of the functional areas that require user procedures. The following are some examples of what might be included in this section of the form:

  1. Create functional procedures for the Accounts Payable department that detail how to process invoices.
  2. Create functional procedures for the faculty that detail how to process grades.
  3. Create functional procedures for all University staff that detail how to request security access.

Part III, Section I – Critical Success Factors.

Identify the critical success factors (metrics or measures) of the project that define project success. They should answer the question, "Why do we want this project?" It is essential that the criteria be quantifiable and measurable and, if possible, related to a business value. The best choices for success criteria are what the bottom-line impact of the project will be or how they align with the University's goals and objectives. The following are some examples of critical success factors:

  1. The registration system will be considered successful when at least 95% of registrants can pay and register via the WEB.
  2. 100% of the critical reports that have been identified as of October 3rd will be converted to the new operational storage platform by June 30th of the following year.
  3. The prototype will provide the necessary planning information for the level of acceptable waste quantities that will be used in the production stream. These quantities will be defined by the formal quality assurance test criteria that will be developed as part of the project and will not exceed 2%.
  4. The pilot installation will be completed following modifications defined during the prototype and documented in an updated acceptance test plan.
  5. The automated planning system will be considers when at least 80% of the regional offices are using the tool to perform daily tasks, as verified by follow up calls.

Part III, Section J – Project Risks.

A separate Risk Description and Impact Form has been created outside of the Project Initiation Process. The intent of this section in the initiation process is to identify any risks that could have a serious impact on the progress and success of the project. Refer to the Risk Description and Impact Form for information on identifying these risks and for writing their risk mitigation plan. This form should be completed in conjunction with the Project Initiation Form for any risks that are known during the initiation phase.

Part III, Section K – Project Costs.

This section is self-explanatory.

Project Initiation Approval Page.

The instructions for this section are contained on the Project Initiation Form.

Part IV – Work Breakdown Structure

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is completed by the C&IT Project Lead. Attach the WBS to the Project Initiation Document so that all interested departments can see the work effort required by their respective resources. The WBS also provides the source for the hours and dollars that will be budgeted for any given project.