Assembling the Project Initiation Document

Compiling a Project Initiation Document (PID) is one of the most important processes in a project. It brings together the key information about a project and sets out what the project will deliver. It acts as the focal point for agreement about the project by key stakeholders and is used for guidance and information as the project progresses. The elements that go into a PID take time and come from the early work you will have done with others, for example in developing the risk and stakeholder strategies or the project definition workshop and will include:

When these nuts and bolts are brought together, you have a PID.

The first complete version of the PID (the version that is signed off and approved by the board) is ‘baselined’ or ‘frozen’. This simply means that it is the version that is used in future to compare what is actually being delivered – or what was delivered – against what was originally planned.  Of course all projects change throughout their life, and the individual elements within the PID will continue to evolve. This is absolutely normal, but make sure you use the change control processes to help you keep track of those changes.

The PID template provides a checklist of the key elements in a PID. However it should be seen primarily as a compilation of activities. All too often people are given the job of ‘writing a PID’ rather than ‘assembling’ a PID. The difference is crucial. Assembling the outputs from a series of meetings and workshops in which other stakeholders have been engaged will make the PID a meaningful, accurate document that is widely owned. The all too frequent practice of giving someone the task of writing the PID in isolation, is likely to result in a document that has had insufficient input from key stakeholders for it to be of great use. These are the PIDs that are filed away never to be used again. It wastes valuable resources and makes the project more vulnerable.

When you have assembled your PID you are ready to submit this for Review 2.