Project management: What is a project charter?

In the previous Coaching Note I listed a few things that can go wrong – always worth considering before you start thinking about a process. In this article, I'll write about project charters so that you have a check list of things to ensure that your project is successful.

This information is taken from Project Management for Dummies, an excellent resource. From my experience, I can recommend any title in the Dummies series.

A project charter

A project charter is a document prepared in the organising and preparation stage of a project.

The project charter has three uses: -

As a definition to say what the project is and how it will be controlled.

As decision support to provide the sponsor or steering committee with the information needed to decide to go on to the delivery stages.

As an ongoing reference for those coming into the project later on and those who need to know what the procedures and controls are, for example to submit a change or report a new risk.

Here are the component parts of a successful project charter: -

Objectives: The agreed objectives for the project.

Scope: What's included in the project, and what's excluded where confusion may exist.

Business case: The justification of why the project is being run, together with a list of benefits and how benefits will be measured.

Roles and responsibilities: Who's doing what in this project? This section can also list the stakeholders – those with an interest in the project.

Communications management plan:

Quality plan: The level of quality that's needed, how the project will achieve the quality, and how the project will be audited to be sure that the quality has indeed been achieved.

Risk plan: how risk will be controlled in the project and who's responsible for it.

Project plan: Information on what will be produced, the activities needed, and the required resource, notably in terms of finance and staff time.

Control procedures: In anything other than a small project, people need a clear statement of procedures such as for problem reporting. This section also can set down the project manager's authority limits and the procedures for referring anything beyond the project manager.

Constraints: Anything that affects how the project is run and delivered, such as security, a fixed delivery date for the project, or limitation on the type of equipment used.

This list applies to large projects; but it is just as useful for any project, however, small. It is a useful starting point for a coaching session for reviewing problems in the past, and planning projects in the future.

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