Project Charter

By Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

Summary: For most project managers and sponsors the charter is something to be ignored. But a good project charter surfaces conflict early and forces decision-making before we start work.

Tier 1: Small Projects
Done within an organizational unit with your manager or your boss as the sponsor

Tier 2: Medium Projects
Cross-functional effort affects multiple departments or done for customers/clients

Tier 3: Strategic Projects
Organization-wide projects with long term effects

Identify Stakeholders

Usually skipped; this step is not necessary on an in-department project where the manager is the primary stakeholder.

Effort to identify stakeholders across the organization so the project team is not surprised by late arriving requirements which must be added and cost more.

Elaborate process of surveys and interviews to identify internal and external stakeholders who may be affected by the project so their requirements can be considered.

Project Business Case

Often skipped as formal project approval is not needed.

Organizations with sound project management processes require a business case to justify a project's priority versus other projects in the portfolio.

The scale of financial and human resources almost always requires detailed justification and demonstration of the strategic impact of the project.

Project
Charter
Document

1 page Broadbrush plan with achievement network, risk, resources and PM authority

Project charter addresses the project acceptance criteria, business justification and rough estimates of the resource requirements (human and financial).

The size of the investment in these strategic projects usually requires extensive documentation of risks, benefits and impacts on other strategic initiatives and the organization as a whole.