Project Initiation Documentation (PID)

Project Initiation Documentation (PID)

The document that authorises a project — what it is, who governs it, what the baselines are, and what happens when they're breached.

The PID is the contract between the project and the organisation paying for it. Written properly it settles scope, tolerances, reporting and escalation before delivery starts. Written badly, or not at all, every one of those becomes an argument later.

The thirteen sections

1. Document status and references
2. Project definition
3. Business case reference
4. Project product and acceptance criteria
5. Delivery approach and lifecycle
6. Governance organisation
7. Plan and baselines
8. Controls and tolerances
9. Reporting and escalation
10. Management approaches index
11. Tailoring decisions
12. Assurance and support
13. Document and data controls

Twenty-two pre-built tables — you are filling in decisions, not building a document.

What it settles before delivery starts

• What the project will actually produce, and how it will be accepted
• Who is accountable, who decides, who escalates
• The time, cost, scope and quality tolerances, and what breaching them triggers
• What gets reported, to whom, how often
• Which parts of the method have been tailored, and why

Who it's for

Project managers who need a project authorised properly, and anyone whose sponsor, client or auditor expects to see the governance written down rather than assumed.

How you use it

Work through the bracketed prompts, delete the guidance, get it approved, and baseline it. Editable Word document. No macros, no subscription.