Preliminary Planning Phase

In this phase, an Initiation Plan is developed for the project. This is the phase where the stakeholders are identified, the scope is set, resources are planned, and the context in which the new system will operate is determined.

The primary participants in this phase are:

More information on planning a project can be found in the handbook Project Management at Princeton University, which includes information on identifying stakeholders and creating an Initiation Plan.

Deliverables
Initiation Plan with Phase Section for Business Analysis
This documents the project's goals and objectives, scope, stakeholders and their accountabilities, management approaches, and estimated schedule (shown as a high-level Gantt chart). The Phase section for Business Analysis provides a more detailed work breakdown structure for the Business Analysis phase, including resources and a detailed Gantt chart.

Use the Initiation Plan template, obtained from the Princeton Project Office (PPO), to create the Initiation Plan, and MS Project 98 to create the Gantt charts.

At this time, no sample is available. Click on the Template button to save the template on your C drive, where you can use it to open a new Initiation Plan in Word. Click here for complete instructions for using a template in Word.
Methodology Compliance Form
This form is initialized by the project team, and completed by a methodology representative who has reviewed the project documentation and found it acceptable. It is completed in Word.

At this time, no sample is available.

Recommendation Form
This form is completed by the project team, and contains the recommendation to the approving body on whether or not the project should continue. The form is completed in Word.

At this time, no sample is available.

 

Steps

  1. The approval authority (see the Proposal phase for a list) forwards a copy of the approved proposal to the resource manager and informs the project sponsor of its approval.
  2. The project sponsor selects the project manager and business area representatives, and the DMS resource manager reviews the proposal and selects the technical project manager and other DMS members of the preliminary planning team. The project managers must have a copy of the handbook Project Management at Princeton University, which can be obtained from the Princeton Project Office (PPO).
  3. The preliminary planning team meets to develop a problem statement that identifies the problem and the stakeholders. The problem statement includes
    • Basic business goals and objectives (from the proposal)
    • Basic project goals and objectives (based on the proposal)
    • Initial estimates of project scope and resources
    • Project stakeholders, including business resources (executive, management, and staff), application development resources, architecture resources, data administration resources, networking resources, help desk resources, and so on

    If the scope does not support the estimated project size indicated in the proposal, the project must go back to the approval authority for approval.

  4. The preliminary planning team meets with the stakeholders to refine the basic goals and objectives and the initial estimates, and to establish accountabilities for each stakeholder.
  5. Based on the information provided in the meeting with the stakeholders, the preliminary planning team creates the Initiation Plan, with a phase section for the business analysis phase of the project (see the handbook Project Management at Princeton University).
  6. The preliminary planning team forwards the Initiation Plan to the methodology representative for review. The methodology representative reviews the Initiation Plan for compliance, and completes the Compliance Form (using the Compform template). If the Initiation Plan conforms to methodology requirements, it is returned with the completed compliance form to the team, which then proceeds with step 7.

    If the Initiation Plan does not conform to the methodology requirements, the plan and the compliance form are returned to the team with an explanation of what is wrong. The team then corrects the Initiation Plan as required and returns it to the methodology representative for a follow-up review. When the reviewer approves the deliverables, the team continues with step 7.

  7. The preliminary planning team forwards the Initiation Plan to all stakeholders for review and sign-off.
  8. The project sponsor and DMS resource manager determine whether or not they will agree to commit the required resources for the business analysis phase, providing a go/no go decision.
  9. If the project scope changes the estimated project size indicated on the proposal:
    10.