Ideally , a project manager should be selected and assigned at which point in project life cycle?

Option1)  Right from the beginning...................... 

Ideally the project manager is nominated in the project charter (you can say initiating phase) but actually he is the assigned one to intiate the project.

During the initiation stage 

Prior to the beginning of the development phase of the project life cycle

The Project Manager should and must be included Prior to the beginning of the development phase of the project life cycle, if percentage of project success is to be realised.

The project manager should start on the initiation process since he will be fully involved in all the process to complete and close the project.  That's why companies are hiring experienced project managers who can provide insight during initiation process and provide all positive and negative risks so they can prepare contingency plan from the start.

- practically after sign the contract

 

For the best results PM should be selected during project initiation phase ,which is the ideal scenario ,however in real life cases normally project sponsor and stakeholders carry out initiation phase on their own and later the PM is assigned ,which can be somewhat accepted since the PM will be involved in the planning phase and can go back to stakeholders to capture any unclear requirements to avoid scope creeps.If a PM is selected on a later stage than planning , such project will have difficulties and only few expert PMs may make it success .

 

Hello Yagoub Alomar,best in initiating stage, just after definition of main stakeholders: initiator and project manager. Main purpose is to detect all stakeholders, motivate them and involve in a project.The future success of all the project results is directly related to the rate of trust and team's cohesion! 

Option1,

During the initiation phase

Its always better to assign a project manager during the initiating process of the project because it helps the project manager to clearly under the triple constrains of the project: Scope, Time, and Budget.