• Develop a project concept. Find a stakeholder who will act as sponsor for the project. Outline the business problem that the system is intended to address, and establish an initial business case for the system. Establish the overall scope of the system in broad terms.
• Create an Iteration Plan (Inception Iteration 1 Plan - IIP1) that outlines the activities you will undertake in the next fortnight to get your project started. Read the steps listed in OpenUP: OpenUP Lifecycle: Inception Iteration: Initiate Project, and then outline the specific actions you will take in relation to your own project to achieve those steps. State the specific outcome of the action in terms of what artefact will be produced, or what change in an existing artefact will occur.
• Also specify how long you expect each action will take. The project is expected to fit within normal unit workloads, so beware of specifying more than 10 hours of activities per week. In conjunction with the reading you are expected to perform, a total of 7-8 hours of planned activities will be sufficient. Don't pad your figures, and don't plan to do too much. Use the ‘Iteration Plan' template provided with the OpenUP website.
• If you are involved in a group project make sure everyone has a task, and identify in the plan who is meant to do what.
• Make sure you include work items for reviewing the current iteration, and planning the next iteration in the iteration plan. Allow an hour or two for these activities.