Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project

This is the second course in the Google Project Management Certificate program. This course will show you how to set a project up for success in the first phase of the project life cycle: the project initiation phase. In exploring the key components of this phase, you’ll learn how to define and manage project goals, deliverables, scope, and success criteria. You’ll discover how to use tools and templates like stakeholder analysis grids and project charters to help you set project expectations and communicate roles and responsibilities. Current Google project managers will continue to instruct and provide you with hands-on approaches for accomplishing these tasks while showing you the best project management tools and resources for the job at hand.

Learners who complete this program should be equipped to apply for introductory-level jobs as project managers. No previous experience is necessary.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the significance of the project initiation phase of the project life cycle.
• Describe the key components of the project initiation phase.
• Determine a project’s benefits and costs.
• Define and create measurable project goals and deliverables.
• Define project scope and differentiate among tasks that are in-scope and out-of-scope.
• Understand how to manage scope creep to avoid impacting project goals.
• Define and measure a project’s success criteria.
• Complete a stakeholder analysis and explain its significance.
• Utilize RACI charts to define and communicate project team member responsibilities.
• Understand the key components of project charters and develop a project charter for project initiation.
• Evaluate various project management tools to meet project needs.