Starting up is not initiating
Starting up a project is pre-project: it asks whether the project is worthwhile and viable, and produces an outline business case and the project brief. Initiating a project happens after authorisation and builds the project initiation documentation — how the project will be run.
Why it is like this
Splitting them puts a cheap decision gate before an expensive one. You spend days deciding whether to decide, not weeks planning something that will be cancelled.
Not to be confused with
One long setup phase. Starting up ends with the board's authorisation to initiate; a project brief is not a PID, and an outline business case is not a detailed one.
In practice
Starting up produces the project brief. Initiating produces the PID — which includes the refined business case, the project plan and all the strategies.
Source: Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, 7th edition (PeopleCert, 2023) — PRINCE2 7, §14 and §15 — starting up / initiating a project. Read on .
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Predict Check yourself
Which product does starting up a project deliver, and what decision does it enable?
Show the answer
The project brief and an outline business case, enabling the board to authorise initiation.
Two authorisations, two products. Conflating them is why so many projects start detailed planning before anyone has agreed they are worth planning.