The majority of project failures can be tracked back to poor definition at the front end. Project initiation workshops force clarity around the key questions for each project defined in the CITI hourglass model.

• problem definition
• project objective
• project CSF's
• definition of products
• statement of required benefits and impacts
• identification of the risks.
  

It has the added benefit of bringing together the key stakeholders and forcing them to discuss the change and how it is going to impact the business.

The first stage is a briefing from the project manager regarding the project and a briefing by the lead consultant to the project manager on who needs to attend the workshop and what will happen on the two days.

On day one of the workshop, the group is taken through the first stage of the hourglass model - defining the problem, the project objective and the project CSF's. Typically, by the end of the first day, a high level list of products has been created.

On the second day, usually after a break of about two weeks, the group then meets up to identify the impacts (the business changes) required to deliver the required benefits. The risks are then also identified which contribute to the definition of additional products.