When a project is in Initialized status, it can be changed to Approved using the Status command. Approval is a key activity in the project planning phase. It allows the project to incur costs and generate revenues by enabling time and cost reporting against the project. When a project is approved, a financial project is created and activated.
A project is typically approved once its initial scope and concept have been defined and sufficient planning and financial information is available to support a stakeholder decision. Approval is intended to serve as a decision point in the project planning phase before project execution starts.
In some scenarios, there may be a requirement to report internal time and costs during the initiation or planning phase, for example for resources working on planning activities. In such cases, the project can be approved to allow reporting, even though the formal decision to proceed with project execution has not yet been made.
When a project is approved, the associated financial project is handled as follows:
Once approved, project activities can be released. The project can later be promoted to Started when the decision to proceed with execution is finalized.