Project
Charter
The
project charter is one of the most important documents on your project. A well
written charter will provide everything project team, the project sponsor, and
other prominent stakeholders a good understanding of what the project all
about. I found that graduate students struggle and developing a good
comprehensive charter. It appears that graduate students struggle with either
too much detail or not enough breath for the project to be well defined.
The
project charter is typically the document that authorizes project. The
development of the project charter can vary significantly depending on the
organization chartering the project. The Project Management Institute recommends
that the project sponsor should author the project charter and this is the
ideal situation. The process of writing the project charter and facilitating
input from various stakeholders provides a project sponsor with a good overview
of the project and provides a good foundation for conversations with the
assigned project manager. Often, it is the project manager facilitates the
process of developing the charter and then goes to the project sponsors and
other stakeholders to develop a group ownership of the project. This is a great
opportunity for the project manager to clearly define the roles of the project
sponsor and other major stakeholders in a way that supports the ongoing
management of the project.
The
components and the depth of the project charter are related to the profile the
project. Large complex projects can have a very lengthy and detailed project
charter, while less complex projects might have a one or two page charter. The
Project Management Institute recommends the following:
·
Project
purpose; why is this project authorize? What will it accomplish?
·
Project
goals and a description of how these goals will be measured. The goals should
reflect the success criteria for the project.
·
High
level requirements; requirements detail what must be accomplished for the
project to be a success. Requirements include business requirements, stakeholder
requirements, solution requirements, project requires (such as acceptance
criteria) and transition requirements. High level means listing those major
requirements identified early in the project. Detailed requirements will be identified
as the project progresses.
·
Major
assumptions; what are the major assumptions made about the project, i.e. resource
availability.
·
Major
constraints; what major constraints are known i.e. the typhoon season on a
project in India.
·
High
level risks; what are the major risks that might impact project success. This
is not a detailed risk analysis. This is the identification of the major risk
known or suspected.
·
Summary
milestone schedule
·
Summary
budget
·
Stakeholder
list; identification the stakeholder who can influence project success and stakeholders
significantly affected by the project outcome.
·
Project
approval requirements
·
Assigned
project manager, responsibility, and authority level; this is your chance to
indicate the requirement for executives and clients to timely approve project
deliverables and changes.
·
Name
and authority of the sponsor; this is your chance to detail your expectations
of your project sponsor and develop alignment on expectations.
Your
project may have more or less than the suggestions listed here. The project
profile will determine the appropriate components of the project charter. One
of the primary purposes of the project charter is to provide an overview of the
project. A good project charter reflects alignment of the goals of the major
stakeholders and their commitment to project success.
I
am interested in the experience of project managers in developing a project
charter and their opinion of its value. Let me know what you think.
Russ