Hello! I have a question regarding project charter. I just been hired as project manager, the only one inside this office. I only get involved to lead projects following the reception of a PO from a customer. So the sales departments has the formal contract signed with the customer that include price of the sail, the work breakdown for the deliverables and general milestones and contract terms. My question is do I still need a project charter to be filled in this case?
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Which is the project charter porpuse? To state a contract and commitment between all project actors and mainly giving authority to the project manager. So, you need the project charter. Saving Changes...
I disagree with Sergio to some degree. You need something that *serves the purpose* of the charter for the projects, even if it is not called a charter.
In a large company with mature processes, well defined roles, and a large number of projects constantly moving through the pipeline, many of the items typically defined in a charter are already defined by process somewhere else. The SOW and schedule are defined in the contract and internal change approval paperwork. The WBS can be tied to the OBS assigning roles to the work, and an organizational charter can define the responsibilities of the PM for highly repeatable project types. In that case, most of the elements of a charter are already there, and already approved by the management team.
I would still put together a document for your own purposes that ties all the information together in one place, but that doesn't need to be approved by the sponsor and stakeholders, because the approval already exists by process.
When the project is not essentially "standard work", that is when I would say a charter is always required or at least highly recommended. That is where you want stakeholder buy-in because now people are working outside their normal day-to-day clearly defined responsibilities. It is almost like having a change board approval for the organizational roles and process deviations in addition to the approval of the work itself. Saving Changes...
Paul AzanorProject Consultant| Lagos NigeriaIkoyi, Lagos, Nigeria
It is advisable to prepare the project charter, the PO and contract documents will serve as inputs.
Remember this is a high level document at most 2 pages will do. Saving Changes...
Project Charter is recommendable to be created, because it gives you official authority as the Project Manager. Contract Documents may be inputs to Project Charter Development. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
The contract is between your company and the customer. Somebody in your company owns the contract, is responsible for fulfilling it, this is your sponsor.
The charter is between the sponsor and you, the project manager.
The sponsors target is normally to be profitable and maybe sign more contracts, it is not or only to some degree to make the customer happy. So the charter has a different goal than the contract.
A contract can be legally enforced, a charter not. Saving Changes...
