Practical Project Initiation: A Handbook with Tools was published in 2007 by Microsoft Press. Project initiation is the process of formally conceiving, approving, and launching a new project. This book describes many actions that lay the foundation for a successful project. Both experienced and novice project managers will find the practices described here to be valuable. Topics covered include: defining project success criteria and product release criteria, project chartering, risk management, lessons learned and project retrospectives, metrics, and many others. Each chapter in the book includes several practice activities and worksheets to help you begin applying the suggested techniques to your own projects immediately. The worksheets are listed below for downloading. The book also refers to numerous process assets, such as templates, procedure descriptions, spreadsheet tools, and other items that project managers will find useful. These items also are accessible from this site.

Training Resources Available

Process Impact offers several training options that align with Practical Project Initiation:

• A one-hour presentation titled (astonishingly!) "Practical Project Initiation"
• A one-day seminar titled "Project Management Best Practices"
• A comprehensive eLearning version of the "Project Management Best Practices" seminar
• The "One-Minute Manager" eLearning series, with 32 brief, on-demand mini-tutorials on focused project management topics

Process Impact Contact Information

Worksheets from the Book

Supporting Process Assets