The document provides an overview of a Prince2 Project Brief, which establishes the foundation for initiating a project. It outlines the purpose of the brief as a basis for the more detailed Project Initiation Document. The brief should include background, objectives, scope, deliverables, constraints, interfaces, business case, tolerances, quality expectations, acceptance criteria, and known risks. The brief is derived from an initial project mandate and forms a firm foundation for initiating the project.

1. Prince2 Project Brief
Purpose
To provide a full and firm foundation for the initiation of the project.
The contents are extended and refined into the Project Initiation Document (PID), which is
the working document for managing and directing the Project.
The Project Brief is a key document in its own right. It is the basis for the Project Initiation
Document. Any significant change to the material contained in the Project Brief will thus
need to be referred to program management.
Composition
The following is a suggested list of contents, which should be tailored to the requirements
and environment of each project.
 Background
 Project Definition
o Project objectives
o Project scope and exclusions
o Outline project deliverables and/or desired outcomes
o Constraints
o Interfaces
 Outline Business Case
o Description of how this project supports business strategy, plans or
programmers
o Reasons why the project is needed
 Project tolerances
 Customer’s quality expectations
 Acceptance Criteria
 Any known risks
If earlier work has been done, the Project Brief may refer to the document(s) containing
useful information, rather than include copies of them.

2. Derivation
The Project Brief is developed from Project Mandate supplied at the start (SU
process) of the project produced by Preparing a Project Brief (SU4) and accepted via
Authorizing Initiation (DP1 = Directing a Project).
If the project is part of a program, the program should provide the Project Brief. In
such circumstances it will not have to be derived from a Project Mandate.
If no Project Mandate is provided, the Project Manager has to generate the Project
Brief “from scratch” in discussions with the customer and users.
Quality criteria
 The Project Brief accurately reflects the Project Mandate
 It forms a firm basis on which to initiate a project, Initiating a Project (IP)
 It indicates how the customer will assess the acceptability of the finished product(s).