02. Project Initiation & Stakeholders¶
At a glance
- Module: 02 of 13 · Part I — Foundations
- Sessions: S4–S6 (Weeks 2–3)
- Level: Beginner
- Estimated time: ~5 hours
- Prerequisites: Module 01
Overview¶
Projects do not start with a plan — they start with a decision. This module covers the work that happens before detailed planning begins: justifying the project, formally authorising it, and understanding everyone who has a stake in its outcome.
Initiation exists to answer three questions cheaply and early: Should we do this? Who decides? What does done look like? Getting those wrong is expensive to fix later.
Learning outcomes¶
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Explain the purpose of a business case and what it must establish.
- Write a project charter that defines purpose, scope boundaries, success criteria, and authority.
- Identify stakeholders and analyse their interest, influence, and attitude.
- Produce a stakeholder register and a basic engagement plan.
- Describe typical governance arrangements and how decision rights are allocated.
- Recognise early warning signs that a project should not proceed.
Lesson plan¶
| # | Lesson | Session | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Stakeholders and Governance | S4 | Available |
| 02 | Project Initiation and the Business Case | S5 | Available |
| 03 | Feasibility and Project Selection | S6 | Available |
Success criteria for the charter are developed in Lesson 2; the stakeholder register from Lesson 1 is reused in the Module 10 communication plan.
Lab¶
Four labs cover this module, in the order they are best attempted:
- Lab 01 — Writing a Project Charter — turn the idea into a bounded project.
- Lab 03 — Defining a Project Vision — problem statement, success criteria, and exclusions.
- Lab 04 — Identifying Project Constraints and Assumptions — what is actually fixed, and what is only assumed.
- Lab 05 — Creating a Stakeholder Register — using the Stakeholder Register template.
Lab 02 — Identifying and Classifying Stakeholders belongs here too, and is a good first lab if you want to start with analysis rather than writing.
Case study¶
See the Case Studies overview for scenarios that exercise stakeholder analysis.
Self-assessment¶
Quizzes for this module are planned. See the Self-Assessment overview.
Key terms¶
Business case · Charter · Sponsor · Stakeholder register · Governance · Decision rights — see the Glossary.