Initiating is one of the most overlooked phases of a project lifecycle (so as is Closing), you have to keep in my mind that if you start wrong, chances are you will end wrong, just like a building’s foundation, if the foundation is not solid the building may collapse any time before or after completing the building, same thing applies to any project, the problem with initiating phase is that it is mostly handled without the project manager, most of project sponsor start appointing a project manager only when the project is approved and after the business case, if there is any, has been built.

If you google “why projects fail” you will get about 10 million results, which implies an undeniable fact, that is projects do fail, as per the study conducted by the Standish group (2004 edition), 18% of projects are considered failed (cancelled before completion), 53% of projects have been tagged as “challenged” (over budget and/or overtime and/or not meeting quality requirements), typically 43% of projects are delivered over budget and 82% exhibit schedule slippage.