0.0 Project Initiation

Overview (0.0.P1)

No organization has the resources to meet all of its business needs. This is true in the best of times. It certainly is even truer when times are tough. Even if your organization is a rare one that has all the money it needs, you definitely do not have the people capacity to complete everything you would like. The typical response to managing scarce resources against an unlimited demand is to come up with some type of prioritization process to ensure that you approve and fund the work that will provide the most value.

The TenStep Project Management process describes how to proactively plan and manage projects. However, this assumes that there is a project to begin with. Every organization has processes in place to identify and authorize a project. In the TenStep process this identification and authorization process is called Project Initiation.

Every organization has some type of process for Project Initiation. Usually there are two instances when these processes are invoked. One is the annual business planning process. This is the yearly process that takes place to identify organizational goals, strategies and objectives for the next one to three years. Each organization then has some process for identifying and authorizing the work for the coming year to help meet these goals, strategies and objectives.

In addition to the annual business planning process, there is always unexpected and unplanned work that arises during the year. Each organization needs to have some way to prioritize and slot this work as well.

The TenStep framework for identifying and authorizing work is full explained and explored through a model that is called the PortfolioStep Portfolio Management Framework (www.PortfolioStep.com). This framework is explained at a high level in this section 0.0 Project Initiation so that there is some background and context for understanding how the project came into being. Once the project is authorized and ready to execute, the TenStep Project Management Process is engaged to plan and manage the work.

Portfolio management is a process to ensure that your organization or department spends its scarce resources on the work that is of the most value. If you practice portfolio management throughout your organization, this process helps to ensure that only the most valuable work is approved and managed across the entire enterprise. If you practice portfolio management at a departmental level, it will provide the same function at this lower level.

Department leaders that do not understand how their budgets are spent, and who cannot validate that the work being funded is the most important, will find themselves under greater scrutiny and second-guessing in the future. Portfolio management can help your department answer some of the most basic, yet difficult, questions regarding work performed and value provided.

Portfolio Management Framework (0.0.P2)

The PortfolioStep Portfolio Management Process has a life cycle that consists of four major sequential phases or activities. These are: Prepare; Plan: Execute; and Harvest. These phases in turn encompass the ten steps described in this PortfolioStep process.

0.1 Prepare the Work of the Portfolio

0.2 Plan the Work of the Portfolio

0.3 Execute the Work of the Portfolio

0.4 Harvest the Work of the Portfolio

Recap (0.0.P3)

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