Besides the project charter, the other critical output of the Project Initiation phase is the authorized assignment of the project manager. Ideally, PMI would like to see the project manager selected, assigned, or identified at the point of project initiation. PMI advocates this practice because it feels strongly that the project manager should be a key player in any and all planning activities. PMI wants to reduce the number of real-world experiences whereby the person now responsible for the project (the project manager) does not have proper input into the key planning assumptions.
The Value of Project-Selection Methods
Outside of the project charter, the other topic that is greatly emphasized by PMI within the Initiating process is project-selection methods.
PMI feels strongly that organizations should have a formal process for deciding projects to sponsor and for ensuring that projects are supportive of the organization's strategic objectives. In many organizations, some type of senior management steering committee or Program Management Office (PMO) performs this project-evaluation and -selection process.
Project-selection methods are the techniques used to execute this process, and they are organized into two major categories: benefit measurement methods and constrained optimization methods.