Writing a Project Initiation Document - Assumptions, Dependencies and Constraints 5/12

01.Document Change History, Related Documents and Purpose
02.Project Scope Statement
03.Project Background
04.Project Definition
05.Assumptions, Dependencies and Constraints
06.Business Case
07.Organisation and Governance
08.Communications Plan
09.Quality Plan
10.Initial Project Plan
11.Project Controls
12.Initial Risks and Issues Log
13.Initial RFC's, Open Questions, Training & Appendix
14.Getting A PID Approved

5.0 Assumptions, Dependencies and Constraints

This section involves essentially detailing what you have assumed on the project, what you require to already be in place in order for the project to be delivered, and finally what issues there might be which will cause either budget or timeframe problems. These are listed as:

• 5.1 Project Assumptions
• 5.2 Project Dependencies
• 5.3 Project Constraints

5.1 Project Assumptions

These are basically details or scope you have assumed ahead of the Project Management Requirements and Business Requirements Specification being documented.

With regard to Project Example this could be detailed as follows:

5.2 Project Dependencies

These are basically deliverables from other Projects and Programmes which your project needs in order to launch. Often these get overlooked which is why it is vital that you research these thoroughly and then list them here so there is no confusion going forward.:

5.3 Project Constraints

This section relates to matters which will impact the Project and mean that it may not be able to deliver to schedule. This might be anything from resources being unavailable due to another large Project launching to being unable to talk to external suppliers due to secrecy concerns as is demonstrated below:

Writing a Project Initiation Document - Assumptions, Dependencies and Constraints Tip

Whilst you should endeavour to be detailed in this section, don't go mad. If you try to cover every conceivable eventuality, your lists will be so long that you may simply give the impression of wanting to find excuses why the project won't deliver on time.

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