📝
How we work (org handbook)
  • Home
  • Onboarding
  • Code of Conduct
  • Project Management
    • Project Initiation
      • Documentation and Checklists
      • Aligning with OpenUp's Mission and Vision
      • Getting Partners and Stakeholders on Board
      • Defining Project Parameters and Limitations (scope)
      • Product Management during the Project Initiation Phase
      • DRAFT COPY
    • Project Implementation
      • Project Planning
      • Agile, Scrum, and the Lean Startup Method
      • Stakeholder Management
      • Meetings
      • Communication
      • Team Management
      • Roles and responsibilities
    • Project Close-out
      • The Close-Out Report
      • Retrospective
      • Donor thanks
      • One page write-up
      • Blog article
      • Maintenance plan (if necessary)
    • Project overviews
      • Citizen Engagement App
      • Our Project List
      • Local Gov Programme
        • Business Portal
      • Tech Infrastructure
    • Project boards
  • How we work
    • Preferred tools
      • Tool sponsorships
    • Budgets & Finance
      • Taxes
        • VAT
        • PAYE and UIF
        • Workmen's compensation
        • Annual PAYE reconciliation
      • The Types of Budgets Used By OpenUp
      • When to Start Planning a Budget
      • Planning a Budget
      • How to Create a Budget
      • How to Spend a Budget
      • How to Adjust a Budget
      • Expense claims
      • Invoicing OpenUp
      • Capturing and approving invoices for payment
      • Allocating AWS costs to a project
      • Allocating Upwork transactions to projects
      • Software, Services and Hosting
      • Downloading Webflow invoices
    • Tool Development
      • Coding Roles
      • Tools For Coding
      • DESIGN
      • The Design Process: Step-By-Step
      • Tools Used In The Design Process
      • Quality Metrics: Design
      • Webflow export rules
      • CONTENT, WRITING, AND MEDIA
      • Creating Substance: The Role of Content in Tool Development
      • Creating Content: Step-By-Step
      • What Goes In Social Media
      • TRAINING & EVENTS
      • Event Planning
      • When, Where, and How to Hold a Training Session
      • Tools Used By Training and Events
      • User testing
      • Making government accessible
    • Outsourcing & Contracting
      • Why do we contract external workers?
      • Platforms We Use To Find Contractors
      • Contracting people for work
      • UpWork Contracting
    • Monitoring & Evaluation
    • Communications & Branding
      • Resizing images
      • Creating an email newsletter
      • Posting a blog
      • Sharing a blog post
      • Marketing Q &A
      • Official communications
      • Tracking app and campaign web traffic sources
    • Human Resources
      • Recruitment
      • Recruitment template: Project lead developer
      • DRAFT Recruitment template: Product owner
      • One-on-ones (1:1s)
    • Organisational Decision Records
      • ODR1: Organisational Decision Records
      • ODR2: Building dynamic web frontends using Webflow
    • Personal Information
    • Password management
  • Tech
    • Development guidelines
    • Preferred tech stack
    • Webflow project guide
      • How to build pages in Webflow so that content can be added using Javascript
    • Setting up a new server
    • Hosting on dokku
    • CDN in front of S3
    • Setting up a new Domain
    • CKAN
  • Product management
    • Our product design process
  • Codebridge
    • Codebridge - the space
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Resource Allocation
  • Budgets and Finances
  • Time Frames and Limits
  • Otherwise...
  • SELF-REFLECTION Questions: Project Managers
  • INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL PROJECTS. What's the Difference?

Was this helpful?

  1. Project Management
  2. Project Initiation

Defining Project Parameters and Limitations (scope)

PreviousGetting Partners and Stakeholders on BoardNextProduct Management during the Project Initiation Phase

Last updated 4 years ago

Was this helpful?

To jump to the Project Initiation main page, click .

Resource Allocation

Forecasting:

  • What resources will OpenUp allocate toward this project?

  • How, Where, and Why will these resources be utilized?

This is a key part of the project proposal.

Budgets and Finances

  • What is our budget for this project?

  • Is the project a potential revenue stream for OpenUp?

See for more information.

Time Frames and Limits

Tasks within a time frame are broken down into bimonthly sprint sessions.

The length of the Project Initiation phase depends on the circumstances.

Elements of a short/expedited initiation process

  • Clients who come forward with outlined intentions and set deliverables

  • Fixed contracts

clear client with outlines intentions and set deliverables typically indicate a shorter initiation process. Fixed contracts easily expedite this phase of the project lifespan.

Otherwise...

For projects borne from proposals and concept notes that require OpenUp to engage with possible

  • users

  • participants

  • clients

the initiation process easily takes two to three months, minimum.

PROJECTS CANNOT RUN INDEFINITELY. If clients and/or partners don't have hard deadlines, deadlines must be created to drive the project forward.

  • How long do we want to do this for?

SELF-REFLECTION Questions: Project Managers

  • What resources will OpenUp allocate toward this project?

  • How, Where, and Why will these resources be utilized?

  • What is our budget for this project?

  • Is the project a potential revenue stream for OpenUp?

  • How will we engage our partners and stakeholders?

  • What is the expected time frame for this project? How long do we want to be involved?

Some projects never exit the initiation phase. A proposal or a concept note could be put together and approved, and still fail to leave the procedural planning stage. A common reason for this is a lack of funds- which is why the budget is the last item to be signed off. Sometimes the project incubates, or gets written off as a waste of time. This is why it's imperative to get to the decision-making stage as quickly as possible.

INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL PROJECTS. What's the Difference?

External projects are revenue based.

Internal projects pool money from our core grant

  • Additional budget-creating activities we invest (or might invest) in will be packaged and shaped as an internal project. This is done to allocate the activity to the Core Operations Budget, even if the activity isn’t necessarily a project itself.

here
Budgets & Finance