Form Type

Project Foundation Document

Purpose

 To define the project, to form the basis for its management and the assessment of overall success.

There are two primary uses of the document:

·         To ensure that the project has a sound basis before asking the Project Board to make any major commitment to the project

·         To act as a base document against which the Project Board and Project Manager can assess progress, change management issues, and on-going viability questions.

 

Contents

 The following are the base elements of information needed to correctly direct and manage a project. They cover the following fundamental questions about the project:

o                                                          What a project is aiming to achieve

o                                                          Why it is important to achieve it

o                                                          Who is going to be involved in managing the process and what are their responsibilities

o                                                          How and when it is all going to happen.

The information will be held in various ways and the following contents should not be read as a list of contents for one document, but should rather be seen as the information needed in order to make the initiation decisions.

Project Name

 

Project Manager

 

Date

 

Background

 explaining the context of the project, and how we have arrived at the current position of requiring a project.
 

 

 

Project Definition

 explaining what the project needs to achieve. Under this heading will be:
·          Project objectives

 

 

 

 
·          Defined method of approach

 

 

 
·          Project deliverables and/or desired outcomes

 

 

 
·          Project scope

 

 

 
·          Constraints

 

 

 
·          Exclusions

 

 

 
·          Interfaces

 

 

 

Assumptions

 Explaining what must be given before the project can properly start.
 

 

 

 

Initial Business Case

  explaining why the project is being undertaken
 

 

 

 

Project Organisation

explaining who will be on the Project Management Team
 

 

 

 

Project Quality Plan

 (See the separate Project Quality Plan Template)
 

 

 

 

Initial Project Plan

 explaining how and when the activities of the project will occur (for details of the Project Plan content see the separate Template.)
 

 

 

 

Project Controls

 laying down how control is to be exercised within the project, and the reporting and monitoring mechanisms which will support this
 

 

 

 

Exception process

 Describing how potential problems are to be recognised and handled.
 

 

 

 

Initial Risk Log

 documenting the results of the risk analysis and risk management activities (see separate Risk Log Template)
 

 

 

 

Contingency Plans

 explaining how it is intended to deal with the consequences of any risks which materialise
 

 

 

 

Project Filing Structure

 laying down how the various elements of information and deliverables produced by the project are to be filed and retrieved