Initiation 1 - Key Components of Project Initiation

Google Project Management Certificate · Course 2: Project Initiation - Starting a Successful Project

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Where initiation sits in the life cycle

Every project runs through four phases, and initiation is the first of them.

Initiationdefine the idea

→

Planning

→

Executing

→

Closing

The project life cycle - regardless of methodology, every project starts here.

Initiation is the phase where a loose idea comes together and becomes the beginning of a plan. It kicks off after someone has spotted a problem or an opportunity inside the organization - often a senior leader or sponsor who wants to launch a new product, improve employee well-being, cut costs, and so on.

Note

Even when the idea comes from someone else, it is the project manager’s job to figure out all the pieces that must come together to actually get the work done - the goals, resources, and details - based on early discussions with stakeholders.

Why getting initiation right matters

Because it is the first phase, initiation sets the foundation. Do it well and the rest of the project stands on solid ground; rush it or skip it and problems surface later, when they are far more expensive to fix.

Caution

What poor initiation causes downstream:

• Without a clear grasp of the goals, you underestimate the resources needed or how long the work will take.
• Without agreeing with stakeholders on what success looks like, you may believe the project succeeded while they feel it never met their goals.
• Late-stage symptoms include a budget shortage, a missed deadline, or too few people to finish the work.

Tip

Getting everyone on the same page early saves time and rework for the whole team throughout the project. Quiz-wise: remember that a lack of preparation in initiation is the root cause of most later-phase failures.

The core work of the initiation phase is: ask stakeholders the right questions, perform research, determine resources, and clearly document the key components - which together solidify the project’s scope (its boundary).

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The key components to determine up front

There are six components to nail down during initiation, and they build on one another in roughly this order.

#	Component	What it is
1	Goals	What you have been asked to do - what the project is trying to achieve. Usually set by senior leaders, with the PM’s help.
2	Scope	The process of defining the work that needs to happen to complete the project (its boundary).
3	Deliverables	The products and services created for the customer, client, or sponsor - anything that enables the goal to be reached.
4	Success criteria	The standards by which you measure how successful the project was at reaching its goals.
5	Stakeholders	The people who have an interest in, and are affected by, the project’s completion and success.
6	Resources	The budget, people, materials, and other items you have at your disposal.

Goals

→

Scope

→

Deliverables

→

Success criteria

→

Stakeholders + Resources

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Project charter

The components feed into one another and are captured in a single document - the project charter.

Goals, scope, and deliverables

• Goals come first - all projects should have clear goals, and they are often determined by senior company leaders with the PM’s input.
• Scope defines the work required to hit those goals.
• Deliverables are what you actually produce. They can be product features and functionality, documentation, processes, and more - anything that helps reach the goal.

Note

Deliverables can be tangible or intangible.

• Tangible - e.g. submitting a chapter of a manuscript when the goal is to publish a textbook.
• Intangible - e.g. scheduling staff training sessions when the goal is to roll out new point-of-sale software in a retail store.

Success criteria

Once goals, scope, and deliverables are set, define success criteria - the concrete standards that tell you whether the project met its goals. Agreeing on these early is what prevents the “I thought we succeeded / they thought we failed” mismatch.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are central to informed decisions at every step, including initiation. They both have an interest in and are affected by the project’s outcome, so they are often the ones who help shape the goals, objectives, deliverables, and success criteria - from first idea to expected results.

1. Understand the stakeholders’ needs early in the phase.
2. Confirm that all stakeholders agree on the goals and overall mission.
3. Only then move on to the next phase.

Tip

A practitioner’s take: initiation rewards active listening - “listening to learn.” Spend real time meeting stakeholders and colleagues to understand the landscape. A feature launched without discussing it with the affected teams is a classic example of skipped initiation, and it usually turns out to be a total miss.

Resources

Resources are the budget, people, materials, and other items at your disposal. Think about them carefully and early.

Caution

No one wants to start a project only to discover halfway through that there isn’t enough money or enough people to finish the work. That is a resourcing failure rooted in weak initiation.

It all lands in the project charter

Once the six components are established, they are documented in a project charter.

Note

A project charter is a document holding all the details of the project. It clearly defines the project and its goals, outlines what is needed to accomplish them, sets up a framework for the work, and communicates those details to others.

You draft the charter, then review it with key stakeholders to get their approval to move into the planning stage. (Charters are covered in depth in a later chapter.)

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Evaluating whether a project is worth doing

Proper initiation also confirms that a project’s benefits will outweigh its costs. The tool for this is the cost-benefit analysis (CBA).

Note

Cost-benefit analysis - the process of adding up the expected value of a project (its benefits) and comparing them to the project’s dollar costs. The benefits should always outweigh the costs.

Why bother with a CBA

• Minimizes risk and maximizes gains for the project and the organization.
• Uses objective data, which reduces bias and stops stakeholder self-interest from steering decisions.
• Builds a strong business case for leadership and helps the organization pursue only its most profitable or useful projects.
• Helps reduce waste and invest resources responsibly.

Guiding questions

Work through these with stakeholders while preparing the proposal.

Benefits

• What value will this project create?
• How much money could it save the organization?
• How much money will it bring in from existing customers?
• How much time will it save?
• How will it improve the customer experience?

Costs

• How much time will people have to spend on this project?
• What are the one-time costs?
• Are there any ongoing costs?
• What about long-term costs?

Tangible vs intangible

Not everything is quantifiable, but intangibles still count. You can flip each benefit question to expose the matching intangible cost (e.g. might the project risk customer retention or brand perception?).

Type	Benefits (examples)	Costs (examples)
Tangible	Revenue gained, money saved, time saved	One-time costs, ongoing costs, long-term costs
Intangible	Customer satisfaction / retention, employee satisfaction & morale, employee productivity, improved brand perception	Damage to customer retention, employee satisfaction, or brand perception

Tip

To put numbers on tangible or intangible items, reference similar past projects, do industry research, or consult experts.

Return on investment (ROI)

Calculating costs and benefits is also called calculating ROI. The simplest approach compares upfront and ongoing costs to the benefits over time.

Note

ROI formula: ROI = (G - C) ÷ C where G = expected financial gains and C = upfront + ongoing costs. Multiply by 100 for a percentage.

Worked example - project costs $6,000 up front plus $25/month for 12 months, and is expected to bring in $10,000 over the year.

1. Ongoing cost: $25 × 12 = $300, so total C = $6,300.
2. Expected gain: G = $10,000.
3. Numerator: $10,000 - $6,300 = $3,700.
4. Divide: $3,700 ÷ $6,300 = 0.587.
5. As a percentage: 0.587 × 100 = 58.7%.

Tip

A strong ROI is generally anything above 10%, so 58.7% is strong - a clear signal to pursue the project.

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Revision summary

Initiation = phase 1GoalsScopeDeliverablesSuccess criteriaStakeholdersResourcesProject charterCost-benefit analysisROI > 10%

• Initiation is the first life-cycle phase (before planning, executing, closing) and sets the project’s foundation; a weak start causes budget, deadline, and staffing failures later.
• The PM’s job is to turn someone else’s idea into a real plan by asking questions, researching, determining resources, and documenting everything.
• Six components to define: goals → scope → deliverables → success criteria → stakeholders → resources; all captured in a project charter that stakeholders approve before planning.
• Deliverables and benefits/costs can each be tangible or intangible.
• A cost-benefit analysis (using objective data) checks that benefits outweigh costs; ROI = (G - C) ÷ C, and above ~10% is strong.

Tip

One-line recall: gather goals, scope, deliverables, success criteria, stakeholders, and resources → document them in the charter → confirm the benefits beat the costs (CBA / ROI) before moving to planning.