PM-01 · our practice ref · series-structure

Start the project with an approved plan

Practice PM-01 in the Project Management group. The basis is series-structure, and the row asks for 3 pieces of evidence.

At a glance

Ref: PM-01
Process: Project Management
Basis: series-structure
Source: Public abstract, process list
Evidence: 3 items
Gaps: 2 common

Evidence to keep

Project ManagementThe approved project plan with the approver and the date
Project ManagementThe project brief or statement of work it responds to
Project ManagementThe kick-off record showing the team received it

Questions before you sign

Who approved the plan, and when?
What is in scope, and what is explicitly out?
How will the acquirer accept the result?

The practice, in our words

No project work starts without a plan that has been approved by the person who commits the firm's people and money. The plan states the scope, the deliverables, the schedule, the roles, the risks and the acceptance route.

What it means in a VSE

For a small project the plan can be four pages. What matters is that it exists before the work and that the approval is visible. A plan written after the first delivery is a report, not a plan.

In a firm of 25 people or fewer, start the project with an approved plan has to earn its time. The test for PM-01 is not whether the team understands it but whether the artefact exists at the end of the project. Shrink the meeting. Shrink the document. Keep the record.

How to evidence it

Attach the artefacts above to the Start the project with an approved plan row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for PM-01 is The approved project plan with the approver and the date. A named person must produce it on request.

For PM-01, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The project brief or statement of work it responds to. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for start the project with an approved plan.

What an assessor samples

An assessor reads the start the project with an approved plan practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For PM-01, the useful sample is the most recent project that used the practice, not the best one. A reconstruction written for the visit is a finding for PM-01 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.

Common gaps

Work started on a verbal go-ahead
A plan that is really a schedule, with no scope or acceptance criteria

What changes from the 2019 report. For PM-01, project management is the spine the other practices hang from. The transition work is to make the plan, the progress reading and the closure exist as records rather than as habits.

Where the draft fits

The public abstract places start the project with an approved plan inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For PM-01, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, process list and does not quote the draft. The basis label for PM-01 says whether the practice is stated in the public record, named as a process in the series, or our reading.

Related practices

Source for this page: Public abstract, process list. Open the record and compare it with the PM-01 statement above. Retrieved 2026-10-22.