Preparing a Project Directive  

Overview

Context

Whatever the external trigger for the project is, this process checks the content into the Project Directive that justifies the project.

Where the project is part of a programme the Project Directive should be created by the programme, thus reducing the work of this process. The project team should validate any provided Project Directive and may need to expand on some of the statements in it. Any changes to the Project Directive provided by a programme must be agreed by the Programme Chairman (e.g. impacts on constraints, such as delivery dates). Such changes would need impact analysis at programme level and may cause entries in the programme and project Risk Logs.

Process Description

The objectives of the process are to:

The Project Directive information may not be complete or accurate. This process achieves a stable statement of project requirement in the form of the Project Directive. The Project Directive needs to include high-level information on WHAT needs to be done and WHY, WHO will need to be involved in the process, and HOW and WHEN it will be done. The aim of the Project Directive is to allow the Project Board to decide if there is sufficient justification to warrant the expenditure proposed by the Initiation Stage Plan. The User Requirements should be prioritised. Later if problems cause reconsideration of the project's scope, funds can then be targeted at those items promising the highest return.

The level of detail needed for each element of the Project Directive will vary with different project circumstances. However, each element needs to be considered, even if the result of that consideration is that the element is not needed.

The Business Case will be refined as part of the ect Foundfation and throughout the project. However, the basic justification for the project needs to be understood, either defined in the Project Directive, or developed in this process and added to the Project Directive.

The Project Directive should also be used to create the Project Quality Plan.

Risks may come to light during this process, therefore a Risk Log should be created.

Responsibilities

The Chairman is ultimately responsible for the production of the Project Directive. In practice the Project Manager and any appointed project support staff may do much of the actual work.

Key Criteria