It is necessary to understand what project charter is to find the answer of above question.
Let’s say your manager comes to your office and says, “Hay, not sure what happened but our main plant producing paint for manufacturing department is not functioning, can you check and get this fixed on priority?”
Is this a project charter? No absolutely not, this is not a project charter infect this statement is not even a project.
Some people says project charter provides a authority to project manager to initiate project activities and produce expected results, this is correct however project charter is far more then authorizing project manager to initiate project activities.
Project charter is not a project management plan or part of the project, this is high level document provide necessary information to initiate project activities including assigning project manager.
Although project sponsor is primarily responsible to develop project charter and provide high level constrains, assign and authorize project manager to initiate project activities, however project manager can also develop project charter and gets sign off before initiating project activities.
Project charter may provide high level project objectives, risks, constrains, requirements, assumptions and list of primary stakeholders, since detail planning may require time and cost which cannot be expend without authorizing project.
Following are major elements of project charter,
Example
In last few months there is significant decrement in enquiries through our website as compare to market trend, the purpose of this project is to investigate the reasons of problem and purpose solution. Customer care department have detail reports that can be used during investigation process
Example
Mr. Thomas is assigned as project manager and authorizes to select team members from different departments by consulting functional managers. PM can approve up to $10K of budget, cost more than $10K should forward to CCB for approval.
Example
This project is initiated to identify the reasons of low percentage of enquiries produced by website, previously around 30% of the company business was produced by the website, this is now decreased to 20%, business is directly effecting and company’s revenue is decreased. We expect that after investigation and finding the solution company’s revenue should increased to 35%. We hope that project will produce ideas to enhance company’s revenue.
Example
Mr. Yaseen and Mr. Jawaid are pre assigned to this project because of their expertise in computer programming rest of the team will be determine by project manager.
Example
Mr. Kamran from Customer care, Mr. Jayson from Quality Assurance and Miss. Klarissa from marketing are major stakeholders, rest of the stakeholder should identify during planning phase by the project manager. It is expected that purposed system should not affect the existing process of marketing, customer care departments and support departments.
Example
A report should be submitted that will provide details of the reasons and solution for the fixing. Solution must recommend change details with approximate development time and cost. Work break down structure and other necessary details, etc
Now compare project charter with the functional manager's request mentioned at the beginning of this article, do you understand the difference between statement and project charter? Infect functional manager’s request mentioned above required two project charters, one is to identify what is wrong and other is how to fix it, PM can not recommend the fixing till he/she identify what went wrong.
Here many of my readers wondering that writing so much information for a single project charter might be waste of time, yes agree coz it might take few days to develop detailed project charter but it will surely provide proper authority and justification of the project objectives otherwise project manager might misunderstood the requirements which will leads to project failure.
A friend of mine is a project manager for a reputed organization, he was given attractive mock ups by senior management and advised to redevelop corporate website as per approved mock ups and deliver revise version of website in three months.
He develop effective project plan and delivered the project as per schedule and cost. It was successful delivery of the project and he was happy that he planned another successful project.
Few months later one of functional manager belongs to sales function visited him and asked why new version is not producing business that was expected? Even new version is producing less business as compare to previous version. He replied that I was asked to developed website as per mock ups and deliver on required time, project was developed exactly as per mock ups beside he was not made aware that the purpose of the project is to increase business leads.
Above situation clearly mentioned that project objective was not communicated to project manager and it was also a mistake from project manager that he initiated project activities without understanding strategic objective of the project.
Let’s say your manager comes to your office and says, “Hay, not sure what happened but our main plant producing paint for manufacturing department is not functioning, can you check and get this fixed on priority?”
Is this a project charter? No absolutely not, this is not a project charter infect this statement is not even a project.
Some people says project charter provides a authority to project manager to initiate project activities and produce expected results, this is correct however project charter is far more then authorizing project manager to initiate project activities.
Project charter is not a project management plan or part of the project, this is high level document provide necessary information to initiate project activities including assigning project manager.
Although project sponsor is primarily responsible to develop project charter and provide high level constrains, assign and authorize project manager to initiate project activities, however project manager can also develop project charter and gets sign off before initiating project activities.
Project charter may provide high level project objectives, risks, constrains, requirements, assumptions and list of primary stakeholders, since detail planning may require time and cost which cannot be expend without authorizing project.
Following are major elements of project charter,
Project title and description (what is project)
What is the project name and description of project?Example
In last few months there is significant decrement in enquiries through our website as compare to market trend, the purpose of this project is to investigate the reasons of problem and purpose solution. Customer care department have detail reports that can be used during investigation process
Assigned Project manager and authority
Who is going to lead the project with level of authority to determine staff necessary for project, approve changes and what extend of budget etc.Example
Mr. Thomas is assigned as project manager and authorizes to select team members from different departments by consulting functional managers. PM can approve up to $10K of budget, cost more than $10K should forward to CCB for approval.
Business case
What is the purpose and justification of the project? Why it is necessary to bring this project in existence? What criteria is needed to meet?Example
This project is initiated to identify the reasons of low percentage of enquiries produced by website, previously around 30% of the company business was produced by the website, this is now decreased to 20%, business is directly effecting and company’s revenue is decreased. We expect that after investigation and finding the solution company’s revenue should increased to 35%. We hope that project will produce ideas to enhance company’s revenue.
Pre assignment of resources
Who and what resources are pre allocated to the projectExample
Mr. Yaseen and Mr. Jawaid are pre assigned to this project because of their expertise in computer programming rest of the team will be determine by project manager.
Primary stakeholders
Individuals or department that will be directly affected by the projectExample
Mr. Kamran from Customer care, Mr. Jayson from Quality Assurance and Miss. Klarissa from marketing are major stakeholders, rest of the stakeholder should identify during planning phase by the project manager. It is expected that purposed system should not affect the existing process of marketing, customer care departments and support departments.
Deliverable
What deliverable are expected from project?Example
A report should be submitted that will provide details of the reasons and solution for the fixing. Solution must recommend change details with approximate development time and cost. Work break down structure and other necessary details, etc
Project assumptions and constrains
What are assumptions for this project, what is functional and working fine in existing system, what features can be excluded for development. What are major constrains of the system, what factor could limit the ability of functioning and what factor could bring system of stake, what are the project boundaries that cannot cross by the project.Project Objectives
What are objective sets for the project and how does it will fit into organization’s strategic goals. Project objective needs to be measurable and should clearly define here.Project approval requirements
Sets the measures of project success, these measures must be accomplish by the project in order to terminate successfully, who will sign off the project and approve if project objectives met successfully.Now compare project charter with the functional manager's request mentioned at the beginning of this article, do you understand the difference between statement and project charter? Infect functional manager’s request mentioned above required two project charters, one is to identify what is wrong and other is how to fix it, PM can not recommend the fixing till he/she identify what went wrong.
Here many of my readers wondering that writing so much information for a single project charter might be waste of time, yes agree coz it might take few days to develop detailed project charter but it will surely provide proper authority and justification of the project objectives otherwise project manager might misunderstood the requirements which will leads to project failure.
A friend of mine is a project manager for a reputed organization, he was given attractive mock ups by senior management and advised to redevelop corporate website as per approved mock ups and deliver revise version of website in three months.
He develop effective project plan and delivered the project as per schedule and cost. It was successful delivery of the project and he was happy that he planned another successful project.
Few months later one of functional manager belongs to sales function visited him and asked why new version is not producing business that was expected? Even new version is producing less business as compare to previous version. He replied that I was asked to developed website as per mock ups and deliver on required time, project was developed exactly as per mock ups beside he was not made aware that the purpose of the project is to increase business leads.
Above situation clearly mentioned that project objective was not communicated to project manager and it was also a mistake from project manager that he initiated project activities without understanding strategic objective of the project.
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