Typical project phases from Sales project to Order Execution. 

Start phase

A projects start phase is most important, the majority of costs, efforts and use of resources are defined. Everything what was missed, will cost dearly in later stages.

Define the target

What has to be achieved? - Contract (of course), 10 % on savings, lighttower project, ...

What has to be avoided? - any extra efforts without confirmation by customer, ...

What is the budget? - market development of suplly prices, contingencies, ...

What is the timeframe? - always to short ;-)

What are the resources? - limited, external, internal

What are the milestones? - CIF, KOM, BDLM, DDLM, Delivery, ... PAC, FAC

How is the cash flow planning?

External and internal influences

Who are the external and internal stakeholder?

What are or might be their expectation?

Which influence could arise?