What is the most important items in project charter?
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What is the most important items in project charter?

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What is the most important items in project charter?

Developed project charter process, as it can understood from its name, aim to produced project charter. Project charter include the high level of project information. Develop project charter process is:

* The first part of integration management.

Because in order to authorize the project officially, the project charter must be produced. Project charter can be considered as copy identity of a project in an organization.

* Authorize the existence of a project and provides authority to project manager.

Once the project is decided to be initiated, project sponsor as an accountable for the creation of the project charter and project manager is assigned to the project as earliest possible. Once project charter is produced, this authorize project in an organization and give authority to the project manager to manage and coordinate project activities.

* Output of the process is project charter.

Main purpose of develop project charter process is gathering relevant information about the project and producing project charter, respectively.

- Sample of project charter.

We will use sample project (Golden Gate Bridge construction project) and we will list all major information about the project that can be included in project charter. Know that this information will give here are just for example and may not be a real reason or information about the project.

The below is example  for information should be appear in project charter:

1- The project title and description.

Project title and description should give a very brief information about the project. In our example, Golden Gate Bridge is a title of the project. For description, the following cab be written:

“ population of San Francisco is increasing, and transportation need between two sides of the city increases in proportion. Sea transportation cannot suffice for the need over the recent years. This project will ease the transportation of vehicles between two sides of the city”.

2- Project manager assigned and authority level.

In our project example, John Smith who will lead the project and his authority can be written as below:

“John Smith will be the project manager of this project and has the authority to determine budget, select team members, and approve/reject changes to project”.

Know that it maybe we have several responsibilities of the project manager at this project, but we write only the high-level information about what the project manager can do.

3- Business case.

That is the reason for initiation the project and it is written in the project charter. Business case of the project describe why is the project done and what was the case cause the project to be initiated.

In our project example, business case can be written as below:

“the project is being done in order to solve the transportation problem of San Francisco between two sides. After the project completion, 80% of the vehicle transportation is expected to be done over the bridge which will solve the transportation problem”.

While this is a business case, there might be several cases for initiating of a project.

4- Resources pre-assigned.

Resource requirements of a project are planned during plan phase of the project and final project team is acquire during project execution. However, high level resource estimation might be included in project charter and if there are already assignment resources to the project, these are listed in project charter as well.

In our project example, Architects of the project are Angelo Steven and George Louka. Head construction engineer is Michael Henry. Other resources will be determined by the project manager.

5- Stakeholders.

Stakeholders of a project are people or groups who may be affected positively or negatively from the outcomes of the project. Stakeholders’ management is a very critical activity in a project. Expectations and requirements of the stakeholders must be managed properly throughout the project especially powerful and influence stakeholders must be manage closely. Stakeholders of a project are identified during initiating however, if new stakeholders are identified in next phases of a project, the stakeholders list and stakeholder’s management strategy of a project must be updated.

Some samples stakeholders from Golden Gate Bridge project can be:

* Government.

Since this is a major project affecting the whole country, progress and outcomes of a project may affect the government.

* Residents who are residing close to bridge area.

Residents might be affected during construction because of the noise, pollution, etc. and after the project completion, their properties might gain additional value since there close to the bridge.

* Project team.

Project team is by default stakeholders of a project because they are performer after project activities. Therefore, they will be directly affected from the outputs of the project.

There can be several other stakeholders, we just listed some stakeholders of the project.

6- Stakeholder requirements.

Stakeholder requirements must be listed in project charter, note that it might be competed requirements of different stakeholders. In that case, conflicts must be resolved, and agreed requirements must be considered.

Sample’s stakeholder requirements in our project example can be:

* The bridge will have 3 + 3 lanes.

* The bridge must resist against 8.5 Richter earthquake.

* The bridge must carry 2.500.000 kgs.

There will be several other requirements of stakeholders in a project, these should be included in project charter.

7- Product description and deliverables.

Product description and deliverables of a project are listed in project charter as well. In our project example can be “ Golden Gate Bridge is the end result of the project or end product of a project”

 And specifications of this product are:

Height: 227 m.

Width: 27 m.

Two legs of the bridge must be completed in first year.

Of course, there are several other specifications of the Golden Gate Bridge, we just listed some product specifications of the project that might be included in project charter.

8- Measurable project objectives.

Measurable project objectives are defined in project charter as well. Project objectives define what needs to be completed throughout the project in order to reach the project goals.

Examples of measurable project objectives in our project example can be:

* Opening a new transportation channel between two sides of city.

* Ending the project in 4 years.

* Completing the project with 250 M USD budget.

9- Project approval requirements.

Project approval requirements must be listed in project charter. What items need to be approved, and who will sign-off the project is defined in project charter.

In our project example, project approval requirements can be:

* Minster of transportation will approve the WBS of the project.

* Final project approval will be determined by the Committee Constituted for this project in Ministry of transportation.

* Final project will be approved by Minister of Transportation on behalf of the Government.

Addition acceptance criteria might be listed in project charter about payments, delivery conditions, etc.

10- High level project risks.

High level risks of a project must be listed in project charter. Potential threats and opportunities for the project should included in project charter.

In our project example, high level risks can be:

* Bridge will connect the two sides of city which will increase the geopolitical importance of San Francisco (this is example for opportunity- positive risk).

* Ease of vehicle transportation may cause to higher usage of vehicles which can increase the air pollution(this is an example of threat-negative risk).

11- Project sponsor authorizing this project.

Project sponsor authorizing the project must be listed in the project charter as well. Note that there might be several sponsors of the project.

In our project example, sponsors authoring the project can be:

Franklin Roosevelt(President of USA), Angelo Joseph Rossi (Mayor of San Francisco) and Joseph Strauss(Head of Golden Gate project committee) can be the sponsors who will authorizing the project.


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