An Idea Is Not a Project: When Does a Project Really Start?

It is a simple question, but one that can create considerable confusion in project governance. In some organisations, the project start date is recorded when an idea first emerges. In others, it is when business case development begins. Some organisations only regard the project as having started once funding has been approved and delivery is authorised. These distinctions matter. The date a project is deemed to have started affects reporting, accountability, resource allocation, delivery timescales and how project performance is measured.

The key question is whether developing an idea and building a business case should be considered project delivery, or whether they are activities that take place before the project formally begins.

UK government project delivery guidance provides a useful framework for considering this distinction. The Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery defines a project as a unique, temporary management environment created to deliver one or more business products or outcomes. The standard also distinguishes between portfolios, programmes and projects.

The Government's Teal Book expands on this standard and recognises that project delivery sits within a wider environment that includes policy development, evaluation, portfolios and programmes. Its structure separates project delivery from the wider work of developing and shaping proposals.

This distinction is particularly important in local government and Mayoral Combined Authorities, where a potential project can spend considerable time in development before there is an agreed scope or a decision to proceed.

An idea is not a project.

An organisation may identify a problem, opportunity or strategic priority. It may then undertake research, stakeholder engagement, options appraisal, feasibility work and financial analysis. A business case may be developed and considered through several approval stages.

All of this work is important. But it is not necessarily project delivery.

The Government's current Guidance on developing business cases makes this distinction particularly relevant. The guidance uses the Five Case Model to develop business cases for projects and programmes. The process is designed to establish whether there is a compelling case for change, assess the available options and determine whether the preferred approach is commercially, financially and operationally deliverable.

The Green Book describes appraisal as the process of assessing the costs, benefits and risks of different options for achieving government objectives. In other words, much of the activity undertaken during business case development is about deciding what should be done and whether it represents value for money. That is fundamentally different from managing an agreed project.

A project manager cannot effectively manage delivery when the organisation is still deciding what the project should deliver. If the scope is still being developed, the preferred option has not been agreed, funding is uncertain and the delivery approach remains subject to change, the organisation is still developing the proposition.

This does not mean that business case development should be unmanaged. It requires appropriate governance, clear ownership, defined decision points and sufficient project delivery expertise to test whether the proposed approach is realistic. Indeed, the Five Case Model includes a management case specifically concerned with how a proposal will be delivered. However, calling this activity the project can create some unintended consequences.

A project may appear to have been running for eighteen months when, in reality, the first twelve months were spent developing and testing the proposal. A project may consequently appear to have missed its original milestones when those milestones were never intended to represent delivery activity.

It can also make resource reporting difficult. If project teams are allocated against proposals that have not yet been approved, organisations can lose sight of the distinction between resources used to develop investment decisions and resources used to deliver approved projects.

Most importantly, it can blur accountability.

There is a fundamental difference between being responsible for developing a business case and being responsible for delivering an approved project. The skills, governance arrangements, risks and measures of success are not necessarily the same.

A clearer approach is to recognise a defined development phase before formal project initiation.

The terminology can vary. It might be called concept development, feasibility, business case development, pre project activity or project development. The label is less important than establishing a clear point at which the organisation moves from deciding whether and what to deliver into delivering an agreed proposition.

Project initiation can then establish the delivery environment. This is where governance, roles and responsibilities, resources, risks, controls, milestones, dependencies, benefits and the delivery plan can be formally established. The project has something tangible to manage because there is now an agreed proposition against which delivery can be measured.

Different project management methodologies will use different terminology and life cycle models. Agile, waterfall, PRINCE2 and government project delivery approaches do not all describe project stages in exactly the same way. The Government Functional Standard itself supports tailoring delivery approaches to the circumstances of the project.

The principle, however, remains useful regardless of methodology.

The starting point for a project should be clear enough that everyone understands what is being delivered, why it is being delivered, who is accountable and what authority exists to proceed.

That does not make everything before that point less important. In fact, good project delivery depends on good development and appraisal. But development and delivery should not automatically be treated as the same thing.

An idea starts a conversation. A business case tests the proposition. An approved scope creates something that can be managed. Project initiation should mark the transition from developing the proposition to delivering it.

Getting that distinction right creates clearer governance, more meaningful reporting and greater accountability. It also gives organisations a much more accurate picture of how long their projects actually take and where time and resources are being spent.