S Company has been awarded the contract for the refurbishment of a local hotel. The overall timescale for the project has been agreed at 30 weeks (a high fast completion for this sort of project). The timescale is not flexible as the hotel requirement to re-open to host the wedding of a very famous and influential music star.  In order to meet this deadline the project has no contingency.

B has been assigned as project manager and has focused on selecting the project team which has meant that no full plan has yet been produced.  When one of the project team members asked about the tools and techniques to be used on the project, B seemed unsure about which ones would be most beneficial and suggested that he was going to rely on project management software.  The project team is concerned about the lack of control on the project as there appear to be no project milestones.

It has been brought to B's attention that the hotel would like to add additional activities to the original project specification and requires a meeting to discuss the implications of the changes to the overall project progression.  B has asked about the project initiation document which he feels should form the basis for the discussion of the changes.  B has been told that the 'brief document' compiled by the hotel is the only document available.

Describe to S Company the purpose of a project initiation document and what should have been included in the document for the hotel refurbishment project.

At the starting of a project a Project Initiation Document (PID) should be produced. This is sometimes referred to as the project charter. The purpose of the project initiation document (PID) is to define the overall mission, scope and deliverables needed, and the roles and responsibilities of the project stakeholders in order to provide the overriding terms of reference for the life of the project. The document can then act as a base document against which progress can be assessed.

Contents

Purpose Statement

From the detailed discussions with the hotel, information should be collected to describe why the project is essential i.e. why the refurbishment is being undertaken.

Scope statement

This should put boundaries to the hotel project by outlining the main activities. This section is significant in preventing 'scope creep' where additional activities are added making achievement of the cost and time objectives fully impossible. This appears to be what is happening with the hotel project and why a meeting is required.

Deliverables

This would list the objectives and tangible elements of the project like reports, assets and desired outcomes.  For the hotel project that would be the exact requirements for the refurbishment.