There seems to be many views on the contents of a project charter?
Below is the sections that should be included in the charter.
How many of the items indicated by PMBOK below are actually relevant?
As per PMBOK a project should include the following:
1. Customer Requirements
2. Business Need, High Level project description
3. Project Purpose.
4. Assigned Project Manager
5. Summary milestone schedule
6. Stakeholders influences
7. Assumptions
8. Constraints
9. Business Case justification + ROI
10. Summary Budget Saving Changes...
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Rakesh TrivediSenior Project Manager| IT CompanyIndore, Mp, India
As per one of the defination -
A project charter is a statement of the scope, objectives and participants in a project. It provides a preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the project objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of the project manager. It serves as a reference of authority for the future of the project.
So no straightfoward answer, it depends on Organistion internal standards but one point is very clear tthat here has to be some Mandatory Items listed in Charter-
Scope
Business Need, High Level project description
Project Purpose.
Project Team
Summary milestone schedule
Stakeholders
Business Case justification + ROI
Summary Budget Saving Changes...
Bruce LoflandSoftware Developer| SprintLenexa, Ks, United States
I agree with Rakesh that it is dependent on the needs of your organization. Here is what is important:
* Customer requirements or some other statement of scope is needed above all else. If you don't have this, you don't have a project.
* Business objectives or project purpose in terms that everyone can understand will help keep the team focused.
* Summary budget, business case justification + ROI, summary milestone schedule are at the discretion of the project sponsors or your organization.
* Assumptions and Constraints should be included, but are mostly used for CYA.
* Identifying stakeholders is important to do early in the project, but I don't think that it has to be in the charter.
* Assigned project manager is usually done in the charter. Its purpose is to tell the team and stakeholders who is in charge. If it is obvious in your organization's culture who this is, then this is not vital to have it in the charter.
Bruce Lofland
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Mark NewtonProject Manager| JacobsWilletton, Western Australia, Australia
Hi All
Perhaps I am coming from a different understanding of "Project Charter" but I challenge all items listed and that PMBoK needs to be included. Coming from the right side of the World - known as "Down Under", we use Project Charter in my organisation as a document that Project Participants agree on up front to cover how they will interact and relate. Honesty, respect, No game playing, speed of responses, how to act should someone get out of line etc.
So while the context for the group agreeing to the charter is important (why the Project Exists) The charter is much less about the 10 items Jikesh listed, as they would be found in the Project Execution Plan (+ others of course).
As attitude / commitment / relationship is the theme PMBoK doesn't really cover this from a team perspective? Saving Changes...
Rakesh TrivediSenior Project Manager| IT CompanyIndore, Mp, India
Hey Mark,
As I stated earlier anything which Organisation/Stackholders agrees would be correct to have part of Charter. Fir example from Six Sigma Philosophy it just concentrates on ROI/Financials side of Charter because that is what the essence of Six Sigma is!.
So you are also correct from your perspective only point may be to have at least some higher definitions included since this is only a inception phase and everyone should know why the project is in place , how this is beneficial for the organization , what is ROI and who are major stakeholders
Saving Changes...
Sylvie EdwardsProfessor/Program coordinator| Durham College (DC)Whitby, Ontario, Canada
Well all items will more likely be there but what I do believe is that the level of details and understanding at this point in time of those items will NOT.
You have to remember that the Charter is the original document that formally authorizes the project to BE a project. Your task as a PM going forward is to confirm the assumptions made in this document and to create a set of planning documents to support the deliver, control and implementation of the project.
