Origination

The goal of the Origination Phase is to ensure that the projects in an organization's portfolio are aligned with its strategic goals and to control and prioritize projects coming into an organization. Main activities include turning an idea into a proposal, approval, prioritization, and scheduling a project. While the Project Manager has limited involvement in this phase, this process must be in place in order to have effective project management within an organization.

Activity	Description	Inputs	Outputs	Owner	Templates and Resources
Develop formal project proposal	The Project Sponsor will create a formal project proposal that includes: description of the work, business case, alternatives considered, impact of not doing the work, initial estimate of resources and schedule, and strategic match.	Project idea Organization's strategic plan	Project proposal	Project Sponsor	A project proposal template is available.
Review and approve proposal	The project proposal is reviewed by the appropriate organization's committee and approved or rejected.	Project proposal	Approved project proposal	Organization's governance group
Prioritize project	Approved project proposals are prioritized and put into the pipeline for scheduling and PM assignment. The full pipeline of projects is re-prioritized on a regular basis.	Approved project proposal	Prioritized and approved project	Organization's governance group
Schedule project and assign PM	Projects in the pipeline are assigned a tentative start date and project manager by the Lead PM or PMO. This assignment takes into account the following: Schedules for in-flight projects Priority of to-be-scheduled projects Resource demands Skill of the Project Manager	Prioritized and approved project Project pipeline Existing project status Resource allocation and demand	Tentative start date for project Tentative PM assignment	PM Lead / PMO