Project Brief

At its simplest, the project brief is a description of the objectives as far as you have been able to refine them and what you know about the scope of the project.

 

Its main use is to inform other stakeholders about the project and project aims as far as they are known. This is particularly useful early on when you want to engage people with the project, for example to attend meetings or workshops.

 

The Project Brief will eventually become one of the elements of the Project Initiation Document. In very small projects, it isn’t essential for the Project Brief to be developed as a separate document. Instead, the information will be gathered as part of the development of the PID. In projects that are part of a larger programme, the project brief may be already created. In these cases, the process of assembling the PID will help you confirm the information in the ‘ready prepared’ project brief.

Once you have a good definition/brief for your project you can begin to address the high level risks by creating an Initial Risk Register.