Question

Wrobinson   5610 pts.  |   Jan 3 2008  4:54AM GMT

The project charter should is a brief summary identifying the project, project manager to whom authority is granted, all of the stakeholders — those that impact or are impacted by the project, the purpose for undertaking the project, project objectives, high level overview of the approach, milestones, success/failure criteria, risks and issues. There is a rule of thumb that if you think it could be included but are unsure, include it. The key here is that this is a summary, not a project plan or proposal.

RashmiSUttarkar   10 pts.  |   Jan 12 2008  10:00AM GMT

Who owns the project charter? I mean who is the author of the project charter?

MizVee   85 pts.  |   Jan 14 2008  2:59PM GMT

The project manager or designee creates and owns the charter as a result of input from his/her business unit project requestor.

Mark K.   10 pts.  |   Feb 4 2008  11:51PM GMT

All of the the above are good, but the main point is not well revealed: The PURPOSE of the Project Charter. I would define the purpose as a contract between the business owner, sponsor and project manager. For internal projects, it may also act as the finanacial commitment.

Other documents would provide both in-depth technical and business detail that would be generated in the appropriate stages of the SDLC.

Jaideepkhanduja   6270 pts.  |   Jul 22 2008  6:14AM GMT

A project charter is nothing but few pages (1 to 5) contract between the project assignee company (client) and the company to which it is assigned. It consists of the cope of Project in brief, the time frame, and deliverables (broadly – the milestones).

Pmhut   10 pts.  |   Aug 3 2008  5:40PM GMT

Here are 2 articles on creating the project charter, with full definition and usage.

From the first article:

“The project charter, sometimes also called a Project Overview Statement (POS), is the signed document that formally defines and authorizes a project.”

Lightmike   210 pts.  |   Sep 3 2008  4:24PM GMT

I don’t disagree with the above. Good points. Yes, the charter is where you define the project to gain a common understanding by all that will be involved - to include a project definition, project scope, project constraints, high level requirements, and clear project objectives.

It can also be more comprehensive depending on the project magnitude. In such cases where the organization does not have a well defined and institutionalized set of project management principles, it can also include the following.

The charter is also how a project manager defines their role, their responsibility and authority to the project, the communications that will be necessary to manage the project (status reporting, meeting schedules), how issues will be managed, how risks will be addressed, and how the roles of decision making and project governance will be followed when scope needs to change or an issue needs resolving.

It is the opportunity at the onset of the project to insure all owners, stakeholders, and managers get on the same page so there are no assumtions or differing opinions of what has to be done, how it will be accomplished, and to build a common framework of how scope, planning, resources, costs, issues, scope change, and risks, will be managed. By taking this project document in a serious light with all parties achieving agreement, you mitigate some of the risks for a failed project due to a lack of initial coordination.

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