The Initiating phase includes all the activities necessary for the project office to define the system concept and obtain approval from OSI management to start the project. After the executive management and project stakeholders have approved the Project Concept Statement, the Project Sponsor assigns or hires a Project Manager. The Project Manager is responsible for the development of the Project Charter based on the approved Project Concept Statement. The Project Charter formally establishes a project and authorizes the Project Manager to use organizational resources to perform project activities.

At the end of the Initiating phase, a phase review is conducted and lessons learned are documented for future consideration.