Revision History

Date	Version	Description	

Jan-23, 2002	
1.0 	
Initial version.	

			

			

Starting the Project 

Purpose
Starting the project includes the activities starting from idea realization through to the development and evaluation of a business case for potential projects. A defined process ensures that all potential efforts are evaluated against a reasonable business case and are prioritized within the overall framework of the Department’s strategies, plans, and constraints while remaining consistent with the strategies and plans of the government in general.

Specifically, the purpose of this project initiation process is: 
•	To ensure that an appropriate business case is developed for all potential projects and that only those that warrant the investment are pursued.
•	To manage the workload of individual departments conducting projects, and to clearly identify interdependencies of projects both within Departments and across Departments.
•	To adequately identify resource requirements for projects, especially as they relate to interdisciplinary needs (Internal Audit, Quality Assurance, etc.) and common infrastructure.

Activities
For more information, see The Enhanced Framework for the Management of Information Technology Projects (Parts I and II).

No.	Activity	Detail of Activities and Remarks	
1	Develop Business Case 	•	Review problems/opportunities 
•	Identify solution options 
•	Identify opportunities for horizontal approaches
•	Conduct feasibility study
•	Analyze costs, benefits, risks, timeframes
•	Review alignment with government/department objectives and priority
•	Identify sources of funding
Note: Some of the activities indicated below to develop the project charter, may also need to be performed at a high level when preparing the business case.	
2	Develop Project Charter	•	Consult government-wide and departmental project management policies
•	Check other relevant TBS policies, frameworks, and the Enhanced Management Framework 
•	Check for lessons learned from similar projects
•	Identify dependencies
•	Consult on procurement issues 
•	Assess availability of right people and capacity
•	Identify need for Treasury Board Approval
•	Involve other departments and agencies, as necessary	
3	Negotiate commitment	Obtain organization commitment to proceed to the next stage of the project.	

Inputs

No.	Input	Detail of Inputs and Remarks	Entry Criteria	
1	Product/ Service Description or Scope Statement 
	•	Product/service description with the characteristics of the product/service the project is to deliver
•	Scope statement, that includes project justification, project scope and summary-level deliverables, in addition to product/service description 	Yes	
2	Organization’s approaches and constraints	Project Initiation needs to taken into account and be tailored to existing organization’s approaches and constraints such as:
•	Government-wide and Department specific policies and standards 
•	Pre-defined organizational processes, roles and responsibilities, tools and techniques, etc.	--	
3	Government Priorities and Plans
	Sources of information on Government Priorities and plans include:
•	Speech from the Throne
•	Budget
•	Report on Plans and Priorities
•	Project charters and plans from related projects
	--	

Outputs
No.	Output	Detail of Outputs and Remarks	Exit Criteria	
1	Approved Business Case 	For details see the deliverable description. 	Yes	
2	Approved Project Scope Statement, or Approved Project Charter 	Scope statement, that includes project justification, project scope and summary-level deliverables, in addition to product/service description
Charter: for details see the deliverable description.	Yes	

Policy & Standards

The following is a list of Treasury Board project policies and standards with a brief overview:

Policy

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Standards

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Supporting Tools and Techniques
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