INITIATION STAGE: DEVELOP PROJECT CHARTER

Initiation is a process group which consists of two (2) processes:

1. Develop Project Charter (a process from Project Integration Management)

2. Identify Stakeholders (a process from Project Stakeholder Management)

DEVELOP PROJECT CHARTER

According to PMBOK 5TH Edition: 

Project Charter is a document issued by the project initiator or project sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply the resources to the project activities.

The document must contain the following:

• The project description of the product or service,

• The business justification or Purpose (the reason for selecting or implementing that project)

• The measurable project objectives and success criteria

• The project boundaries

• The high level project requirements

• The assumptions, constraints or Limitations

• The high level risks

• Summary milestone schedule

• Summary Budget

• Project Stakeholders list

• Assigned Project Manager and authority

• Project Sponsor and authority

In short, it is a living summary that helps to understand the project itself and it will be used as a reference as time goes on.

How to develop Project Charter

Normally the project sponsor or initiator is a primary author. But if the project manager is involved in the process then he or she will need to meet with the project sponsor or initiator to discuss the contents and submit to them for the review.

If you are a project initiator or a project sponsor, the following should be your inputs to use when developing the project charter.

1. Project Statement of work

This is a description of your product, service or result that the project is intended to deliver. The statement of work can be based on the business needs from internally or can be based on the request from the customer (externally) such as request for proposal, request for bid etc.

2. Business Case

This is the information that explains whether the project is worthy to invest or not. The business case can be created for the business benefits as a result of market demand, organizational need, customer request, technological advance, social need, legal requirements, environmental impacts etc

3. Agreements

These are documents that explain the initial intentions of the project. They can be in form of contract, Memorandum of Understanding, email, letter of agreement etc.

4. Enterprise Environmental factors

These are internal and external factors that can influence the project management, in other words, they can also influence the development of project charter such as organization structure, organizational culture, Governmental standards etc

5. Organizational Process Assets

These are assets that can influence the project management, in other words, they can also influence the “develop project charter” process such as templates, lessons learnt, organizational processes and policies etc

These inputs can be collected by using different experts with specialized knowledge on the project such as consultants, customers, sponsors, units within the organization, other stakeholders, professional associations, team and the management and do brainstorming to acquire their views, benefits, estimates, documents and all information that you need for developing the charter.

If you are a project manager, you will draft the charter in order to get the reviews from whom you involved in the discussions before getting the final draft to be authorized by the sponsor.

The charter should not be into detail and it should be less than 5 pages for ease reading to others.

Here is the sample:

Reference:

PMI (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 5^th Ed.) USA, Project Management Institute
http://www.brighthubpm.com/methods-strategies/1672-the-initiation-stage-in-project-management/

Thank you and if you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to post on the comments below.

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