The first two weeks of a project determine whether it succeeds or fails. Yet most financial services programmes start with a vague mandate, unclear governance, and a "we'll figure it out as we go" approach to stakeholder management. This pack fixes that.
Every document in this pack has been refined across dozens of programme initiations in banking, trading infrastructure, and regulatory change programmes. They represent the minimum viable documentation that separates controlled delivery from organised chaos.
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In financial services, project initiation is often either over-engineered (200-page PID that nobody reads) or under-documented (a PowerPoint deck and good intentions). Neither approach works. What works is a focused set of documents that establish clear scope, accountable governance, and managed risk — without drowning the team in paperwork before they've delivered anything.
This pack strikes that balance. It's opinionated about what matters during initiation (governance, stakeholders, risk) and deliberately lightweight on what doesn't (detailed design, full resource plans, exhaustive schedules). You can always add detail later. You can never recover from a bad start.
A structured but concise PID template covering business case summary, scope boundaries, success criteria, assumptions, constraints, and dependencies. Pre-formatted with the sections that steering committees actually read and approve. Includes guidance notes on each section.
Role assignment matrix covering all typical project functions — from sponsor to SME — with clear definitions of what Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed actually mean in practice. Includes common FS-specific roles like Compliance sign-off, Risk approval, and Architecture review.
Stakeholder mapping template with influence/interest matrix, communication preferences, and engagement strategy per stakeholder group. Calibrated for financial services environments where you're navigating front office, risk, compliance, operations, IT, and external regulators simultaneously.
Governance structure covering steering committee, working groups, escalation paths, and decision-making authorities. Includes meeting cadence templates, standing agenda items, and the terms of reference that ensure governance meetings are decision forums — not status update sessions.
Combined risk and issue register with probability/impact scoring, mitigation actions, and ownership tracking. Pre-loaded with the 20 most common risks in financial services programmes, from regulatory timeline changes to vendor resource constraints.
High-level planning template covering phases, milestones, dependencies, and critical path identification. Designed for the initiation phase — detailed enough to secure approval, lightweight enough to remain useful when reality diverges from the plan.
Structured decision log capturing context, options considered, decision taken, rationale, and impact. The single most undervalued project management tool — and the one that saves you when someone asks "why did we decide that?" six months later.
Project managers and programme managers setting up new initiatives in financial services organisations. PMO leaders who want consistent initiation quality across their portfolio. Interim managers who need to establish governance fast when parachuted into a new engagement. And sponsors who want to ensure their project starts with the right foundations.
It's methodology-agnostic. The templates work equally well in waterfall, agile, and hybrid environments because they focus on governance fundamentals that every project needs regardless of delivery methodology. If you're running SAFe or Scrum, the RACI and governance templates adapt to those frameworks.
That's the entire point. Every template is provided in editable format with guidance notes explaining what each section is for and how to tailor it. You can add your company branding, merge sections, or strip out what's not relevant to your context.
Three ways. First, the content is calibrated for financial services — the risk register, stakeholder map, and governance framework reflect the reality of operating in a regulated environment. Second, the templates are opinionated: they tell you what good looks like, not just provide empty boxes to fill. Third, they've been tested in practice across 28+ years of actual programme delivery.
Yes. If you purchase both packs together, we offer a combined price. The Quick Scan and Initiation Pack are designed to work as a sequence: scan first to assess the current state, then use the Initiation Pack to (re)set the foundations based on your findings. Contact us for bundle pricing.