Beginnings are always difficult.
Projects are about people, people are about relationships, relationships are about trust, trust comes over time.
So at the very moment your project is at its most vulnerable because you don’t have enough information, credible plans, nor stakeholder support, you also don’t have the relationships with key people to fall back on.
The only way to start is to trust your instincts.
Something they won’t tell you in any project management methodology book.
It’s also not just what you do at the beginning of the project; it’s how you do it.
The ‘what’ is no huge mystery. Perfectly straightforward project management theory.
Go and buy any project management book for a list of all the things you need to get done at the beginning of a project; it’s no more complicated than the shopping list for a cooking recipe.
But what none of them will tell you is ‘how’.
The reason those books won’t tell is simply that there is no magic formula.
There is no list of successful habits to kick-start a project that works in the real world.
You aren’t going to learn it from any textbook because it’s all about people and relationships.
And that is one reason why so many projects fail at the beginning.
A project management certificate does not help anybody with their people and relationship skills.
Also what works for one project or company will not work for another.
You need to be able to read people, relationships, situations, and organizations,
You need to be able to trust your instincts.
In a nutshell: The only way to start a project is to trust your instincts because it’s all about people and relationships.