Chartering Projects Chapter 4 Contemporary Project Management Kloppenborg © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Chapter Vignette Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp • Systems Engineering Solutions provides a wide range of air, space, and counterspace engineering and professional analytic services • Increase stakeholder by-in by addressing and thinking about things up front • By going through the chartering process, stakeholders take ownership in the project. • Project sponsors are typically U.S. government customers © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Chapter Vignette Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp • The pre-chartering process: Initial statements of work or objectives defining their goals for the task and then select among several proposals • The project charter: – Overall project objectives – Contrast between technical approach as written in the company’s proposal for execution and sponsor expectations – Milestones, checkpoints, and potential payment plans – Success criteria and schedule – Identification of key stakeholders and risks – Processes for executing, monitoring, controlling, and overall management of the project At the end of this chapter… • Describe what a project charter is and why it is critical to project success. • List the various elements of a charter and tell why each is used. • Create each section of a charter for a small sample project using given project information. • Work with a team to create a complete charter for a real project. • Initialize a project in Microsoft Project and set up a milestone schedule. © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. What is a Project Charter? • An informal contract between the project team and the sponsor • A contract – is an agreement entered into freely by two or more parties. – cannot arbitrarily be changed – offers something of value for each party – is a living document that can evolve with changing conditions © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. What is a Project Charter? • Signing a charter represents the transition from the project initiating stage into the project planning stage © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Why is a Project Charter used? • The four major purposes for a charter are to: 1. authorize the project manager to proceed 2. help the project team and sponsor develop a common understanding 3. help the project team and sponsor commit 4. quickly screen out obviously poor projects © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 1. Authorize the project manager to proceed • The project charter authorizes the commitment of resources to a project • The project charter gives the project and the project manager official status within the parent organization. Project charter “formally authorizes the project … documents initial requirements that satisfy the stakeholders’ needs and expectations … and provides the project manager the authority to apply resources to project activities.” PMBOK® Guide © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 2. Common understanding • Benefits associated with the common understanding include: – Teamwork develops. – Agreement, trust, communication, and commitment between the sponsor, project manager, and project team develop – The project team does not worry if management will accept a decision. – The sponsor is less likely to unilaterally change the original agreement. © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. When is a charter needed? Typical Elements in a Project Charter • The term “charter” may be substituted with project request, project submission form, project preplanning form • Typical elements of a project charter include: Title Scope overview Business case Background Milestone schedule Risks, assumptions, constraints Spending approvals/budget estimates Communication plan requirements Team operating principles Lessons learned Signatures and commitment © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Typical Elements in a Project Charter Scope Overview • A high-level description of what needs to be accomplished and how it will be done • The project in a nutshell Product scope – “features and functions that characterize a product, service or result.” PMBOK® Guide Requirements – “condition or capability that must be met…to satisfy…needs, wants, and expectations of the sponsor, customer, and other stakeholders.” PMBOK® Guide © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Scope Overview • Used to help prevent scope creep • Considered to be the project boundaries Scope creep – “adding features and functionality (project scope) without addressing the effects of time, costs, resources, or without customer approval.” PMBOK® Guide © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Business Case • • • • The project purpose or justification statement Answers the question “why?” Used to justify the necessity of the project Clearly tie the project to the organization’s strategy • May be just the rationale or include high-level estimates of the costs and benefits of the project. • Persuades decision makers to support the project and inspire team members to work hard on it. © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Background • Used to provide more detail to support the scope statement and business case statements • The background statement is optional © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Milestone Schedule with Acceptance Criteria • Divides the project into 3 to 8 intermediate points whose completion can be verified • Lists major milestones and deliverables Milestone schedule – “a summary-level schedule that identifies the major schedule milestones or significant points or events in the project.” PMBOK® Guide Deliverable – “any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that must be produced to complete a process, phase, or project. Often … subject to approval by the project sponsor or customer.” PMBOK® Guide © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Milestone Schedule with Acceptance Criteria • A column for acceptance criteria helps determine who will judge the quality of the deliverable and by what criteria • Acceptance criteria represent the project’s vital signs • Never turn in a deliverable without knowing how it will be judged Acceptance criteria – “those criteria, including performance requirements and essential conditions, which must be met before project deliverables are accepted.” PMBOK® Guide © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Risks, Assumptions, and Constraints Risk – “an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project’s objectives.” PMBOK® Guide Assumptions – “factors that, for planning purposes, are considered to be true, real, or certain without proof or demonstration.” PMBOK® Guide Constraint – “an applicable restriction or limitation, either internal or external to the project, that will affect the performance of the project.” PMBOK® Guide © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Risks, Assumptions, and Constraints • Reminders of what could prevent successful completion of a project • The more comprehensive, the more likely to discover problems before they occur • A false assumption becomes a risk • A constraint that limits money, time, or resources is a risk © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Risks • Any risk that may inhibit successful project completion needs to be identified and a plan must be developed to overcome it. • A risk that can create a positive effect on a project can be considered an opportunity • Must consider the risk of NOT undertaking the project • Contingency plans are developed for each major identified risk • An “owner” is assigned responsibility for each contingency plan © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Spending Approvals or Budget Estimates • A preliminary budget should include the level of confidence in the estimate • Some internal projects do not develop formal budgets • Identify expenses the project manager can authorize and expenses the sponsor needs to control © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Team Operating Principles • Established to enhance team functioning • Goal is to increase team effectiveness • Ensure that all parties are aware of what is expected • Useful team operating principles deal with conducting meetings, making decisions, accomplishing work, and treating each other with respect. © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Lessons Learned • Successes and failures of previous projects become practical advice • Avoid the risk of repeating mistakes from previous projects Lessons learned – “the learning gained from the process of performing the project.” PMBOK® Guide Lessons learned knowledge base – “a store of historical information and lessons learned about both the outcomes of previous project selection decisions and previous project performance.” PMBOK® Guide © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Signatures and Commitment • • • • Who is involved Extent to which each person can make decisions Expected time commitment for each person The project sponsor, project manager, and core team members show commitment by signing the charter © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Constructing a Project Charter • It is helpful if the sponsor creates the first draft • The organization’s leadership team may contribute information in addition to the business case and scope overview • One to four sentences should be written for the scope overview and business case © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Scope Overview and Business Case Example Background (Optional) © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Milestone Schedule with Acceptance Criteria Instructions Six-Steps for Constructing a Milestone 1. Briefly describe the current situation that requires the project • 1st row of the milestone column 2. Describe the project at its successful completion • Last row of the milestone column 3. Describe the acceptance criteria for the final project deliverables • Bottom row of 3rd and 4th columns © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Six-Steps for Constructing a Milestone 4. Determine the few key points in the milestone column where quality needs to be verified 5. For each milestone, determine who the primary stakeholder(s) is(are) and how the resulting deliverable will be judged 6. Determine expected completion dates for each milestone © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Six Sigma Milestone and Acceptance Criteria Template © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Risks, Assumptions, and Constraints Instructions • Brainstorm all things that could pose a risk to the schedule, budget, usefulness of deliverables, or stakeholder satisfaction • Assumptions are especially important when a crossfunctional team is performing the project • Quantify risks on one of several dimensions – – – – probability of occurring* impact if realized* timing of probable occurrence ability to detect • Decide which risks should be considered “major” • Major risks require a formal contingency plan *2 most frequently used dimensions Risk Assessment Example © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Risk Contingency Plan Example © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Spending Approvals or Budget Estimates Instructions • Sponsor may have given the project manager a crude budget for consideration • A limit of spending authority for the project manager may have been developed © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Stakeholder List • Identify all stakeholders • Determine which stakeholders are most important © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Team Operating Principles Instructions • • • • Establish how meetings will be conducted Establish how decisions will be made Establish how work gets done Establish how everyone will treat each other with respect © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Team Operating Principles Example © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Lessons Learned Instructions • Consider what has worked well and what has worked poorly • Each project should report lessons learned at key reviews and project completion • Make lessons available in a lessons learned knowledge base • The more specific the lessons, the more likely they will be found useful © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Project Lessons Learned Example © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Signatures and Commitment Instructions • Project sponsor, manager, team members all sign the charter • Signatures represent public acknowledgement of commitment Ratifying the Project Charter • The project manager and team formally present the project charter to the sponsor for approval • Questions are presented for clarification and agreement • The sponsor, project manager, and core team sign the project charter © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Starting a Project using Microsoft Project • • • • MS Project 2010 Introduction Initialize MS Project for General Use Initialize a Project Construct a Milestone Schedule © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. MS Project 2010 Introduction © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. MS Project 2010 Introduction • Quick Access toolbar – customizable set of frequently used commands • Ribbon – set of 6 tabs used to construct, resource, baseline, status, communicate information about a schedule – – – – – – File Task Resource Project View Format © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. MS Project 2010 Introduction • Project Schedule Information window – customizable set of frequently used commands • Information formats that can be displayed in a pane: – Timeline – a Gantt chart-like bar – Schedule Details – task, resource, assignment data – Forms – described in Chapter 8 © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. MS Project 2010 Introduction • Zoom Slider – quickly change the zoom level of graphical task views • Quick View selector – quick access to Gantt chart, task usage, team planner, and resource sheet views • Default Task Mode selector – reports default scheduling mode for each new task © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Initialize MS Project for General Use • Auto Scheduled mode – MS Project automatically calculates a schedule using schedule drivers • Manually Scheduled mode (default) – Ignores schedule drivers and uses manually entered data © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Set Auto Scheduled as Default Task Mode 1. File, Options, Schedule 2. Scheduling options – All New Projects 3. New tasks created – Auto Scheduled 4. Okay © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Initialize a Project 1. Set the project start date 2. Enter identifying information 3. Automatically generate a project summary row Initialize a Project 1. Set the project start date 2. Enter identifying information 3. Automatically generate a project summary row Initialize a Project 1. Set the project start date 2. Enter identifying information 3. Automatically generate a project summary row © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Construct a Milestone Schedule © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Construct a Milestone Schedule 1. In the Task Name cells below the Project Summary row, enter the milestone names. 2. In the Duration cells, enter a value of zero for each milestone. 3. For each milestone row: a. Double click a field in the row to activate the Task Information dialog. b. In the Advanced tab, Constraint Type, enter Must Finish On. c. In Constraint date, enter the milestone date. d. Click OK. Construct a Milestone Schedule © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Summary • The project charter is a vital document that enables the project sponsor, project manager, and core team to reach mutual understanding and agreement on the project at a high level. • Charters include sections such as a scope overview, business case, milestone schedule, acceptance criteria, risks, and signatures. • The sponsor meets with the project manager and core team to go over the charter in detail to ensure understanding and to reach agreement. • The charter is the document that completes the project initiating stage. © 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. Information Systems Enhancement Project Charter • Used when a nonprofit agency formed a project team to upgrade its information systems PM in Action Example Information Systems Enhancement Project Charter PM in Action Example Information Systems Enhancement Project Charter PM in Action Example