The Steps and documentation required in the initiation phase and planning phase.

Project Initiation
Project Initiation is the first phase of project management lifecycle and is often considered the most
important. In this stage, companies decide if the project is needed and how beneficial it will be for them.
It is at this point where the opportunity or reason for the project is identified and a project is developed
to take advantage of that opportunity. It helps to create a project charter, define the scope of the
project and set expectations of customers on the project. The steps involved in project initiation are
described below:
 Creating a Business Case:
Business Case is an important document that explains how the projects goal bring into line with the
company's long term plans. This document explains why the company should spend its technical,
financial, and human resources on the specific project. An ideal business case does not talk about any
technical details of the project and focuses solely on the business aspects. It is made to convince the
upper-management to approve the project and answers their concerns related to possible financial and
business-related risks.
 Feasibility Study:
The purpose of the feasibility study is to identify project constraints, alternatives, and related
assumptions as they apply to the project deliverables. The study document can be abstracted without
following a specified format, but it should not be overlooked.
 Establishment of Project Character:
This is the most important part of project initiation process. The charter is, in some ways, the first
document of the project that identifies the necessary details like the goals and the constraints of the
project. Project Charter also defines the project scope and lists the required resources for the
completion of the project.
 Identifying Stake Holders:
Large sum of money is required for completion of the project. For this reason, it is necessary to consider
a person who has invested interest in project and its outcome and can endow a considerable budget for
project. It’s the responsibility of the project manager to ensure the means and frequency of the
communication with each stakeholder according to their influence.
 Appointment of a Project Team and Working Environment:
A project team is a must in order to develop a project. Appointing a project team on the basis of their
talent and with some roles and responsibilities is vital part of project initiation phase. Assigning roles
and responsibilities early on also increases the overall accountability of the entire team and can help you
as a manager in the later phases of the project life cycle.
 Final Review:
After performing everything, it’s a good practice to review the entire project initiation stage to ensure
you missed nothing. In later stages, you’ll continue reviewing your work as monitoring and controlling is
one of the five phases of the project management life cycle.
Planning phase
Planning phase is when the project plans are documented, the project deliverables and requirements
are defined, and the project schedule is created. It involves creating a set of plans to help guide your
team through the implementation and closure phases of the project.
Steps of the planning phase
 Create and analyze business case:
The business case is one of the main reasons for an organization to carry out the project. It must outline
the problem of the organization and provide solution on how it can be solved.
 Identify and meet relevant stakeholders:
Identifying stakeholders means shortlisting everyone who is going to be affected by the project to be
created. However, it is only necessary to meet those stakeholders who will have a direct decision on
whether the project will happen or not.
 Define project scope:
Scope here means what the project will be covering and what it won’t be covering. It is absolutely
necessary to create a boundary about the project and dedicate the required materials and equipment.
 Set goals and objectives:
After defining the proper scope of the project we must define its board initial plans and set them in
project charter. This helps the workers to not lose the sight of the project and move in the correct order.
 Determine Deliverables:
Deliverables are the absolute result that project are going to create. This is one of the main step in
planning phase after the deliverables are decided another task appears that is to decide who are
responsible for both producing and receiving these deliverables.
 Cremate project schedule and milestone:
The schedule for project are to be defined in this step including some milestones this helps the worker
to calculate their time for the creation of project and also the stakeholders are cleared about the project
is getting ready.
 Assignment of task:
Everyone in the team must be dedicated and must be responsible for different roles that are assigned to
them. While assigning the role skills and knowledge of the team members must be kept in mind.
 Carry out risk assessment:
All the possible risk must be identified along with their effect on the project and proper counter
measures must be planned ahead of time. Having a functional risk management plan is the result
of performing a strong assessment in the planning phase of project initiation.
Documentation:
Documentation is very much essential during initiation of a project because it can create
confusions on goals o f the project and lack of clarity can pull the project towards a completely
different direction. This can result in building up nonviable expectations and creating unnecessary
fears. Project Initiation document (PID) helps in clarification of these proble planning a topms
and helps in level project. It is also necessary to communicate with stakeholders about many
important matters related to the project. PID helps to create that secure communication
between the project manager and stakeholders. Some of the key points included in
documentation of a project are:
 It helps in defining the project and scope and extent of the project, so it is necessary to
clarify the scope and project which is handled by the documentation phase.
 It is necessary to justify the customers about the project and its outcome so that there
is more involvement of the customers in the project’s outcome.
 Documentation also includes affix the funding of the project and information required for
proper budget handling. Documentation also defines the roles and responsibilities of the
members of the project.