Quick Recap
Project Initiation overview
• Awareness of the need for change (situation, context)
and recognition by stakeholders that only a project can
bring about the desired change
• Consideration of project options
• Collection of basic information to perform a preliminary
project feasibility assessment and determine possible
project costs and outcomes (positive and negative)
• Preparation of a formal project proposal for consideration
by the project sponsors
• Undertake a detailed project feasibility study if required
• Decide whether project should be pursued, put on-hold
for a future time or rejected
• Make contracts with key stakeholders, issue project
charter and assign resources for the project
• Move the project into the (detailed) planning phase
Lesson 5: Initiating a Project
Topic 2D: Create a Project Charter
Topic 2E: Identify Project Stakeholders
Project charter
• According to the Project Management Institute, the
Project Charter is the document that “formally authorises
the project”.
• The Project Charter provides the Project Manager and
Project Team with the authority to use resources for the
purpose of undertaking the project.
• The Project Charter is usually short and is issued by the
Project Sponsor or a senior official outside the level of
the project organization.
• Some Project Charters contain brief general information
about the project; others may contain specific details
Project charter
• The project charter is a high level agreement between
the project sponsor and the project team
• Documents the scope, which may have been refined
since the business case
• Define project infrastructure
• What resources, technology, methods,
PM processes will support the project?
and
Project charter
• Identify key personnel, facilities and tools
• Summarize the project plan
• Scope, schedule, budget, and quality
objectives
• Deliverables, major milestones
• Define roles and responsibilities
• Identify project sponsor, manager, key leads,
and how they will communicate and make
decisions
Project charter
• Express commitment to the project
• Describe the resources committed to the
project
• Who will take ownership of the final product?
• Define project control mechanisms
• What processes will be followed for requesting,
reviewing, and approving changes to project
scope, cost, or schedule?
Charter contents
• A charter typically can contain:
• Project identification, such as the name or
acronym or logo by which it’s known
• Critical for your team coffee mugs
• Project stakeholders
• Who are they?
• What roles do they play?
• Who reports to whom?
Charter contents
• Project description
• Give a nice overview of the project, for
someone who’s never heard of it
• Might include the project’s vision or overall
goals
• Measurable organizational value
• Yes, it’s important enough to get its own section
• Project scope
• Could be a formal SOW, or less formal
narrative
Charter contents
• The project scope is less detailed than the
project plan, but outlines the major features of
the project, and what is not part of the project
scope
• Project schedule – at a high level, such as major
phases and overall duration
• Project budget – at least the totals
• Quality issues, such as the standards to be
followed, or other overall quality objectives
Charter contents
• Resources – who is providing people, technology,
facilities, etc. to support the project
• You don’t want an office in your daughter’s
dorm room…
• Assumptions and risks
• Key people availability
• Events that could change project scope,
budget, or duration
Charter contents
• External constraints on the project, e.g. project
interfaces to existing systems
• Internal constraints, such as resource
competition
• Project impact on other parts of the
organization
• Environmental, political, economic, or other
issues
• Project administration
• What plans will be developed to support this
project? Scope mgmt, communications, quality
mgmt, quality mgmt, change mgmt, HR, etc.
Charter contents
• Acceptance and approval
• Who signs off?
• References
• Terminology
• Particularly helpful if the project scope spans
many technical specialties, who don’t know
each others’ acronyms and phrases
Project Stakeholders
• Individuals who are actively involved in the project
• Those whose interests may be affected by the project
completion
• Those who may have influence over the project or its
results
Key stakeholders include
• Project Manager – the individual responsible for
handling the project
• Customer – the individual or organisation who will
use the project’s product
• Performing Organisation – the enterprise whose
employee’s are most directly involved in doing the
work of the project
• Project Team Members
- the group that is
performing the work of the project
• Project Sponsor- the individual or group that
provides the resources for the project
• Regulatory or government agencies
• Sellers and contractors
• Individual citizens or groups of citizens
Project sponsor
• The project sponsor is a critical role for the success of
any project
• It’s someone outside the development team who is not
only paying for the project, but also acts as a champion
to support the project and protect it from outside threats
Project sponsor
• The sponsor:
• Empowers the project manager
• Maintains project support (“buy-in”) from other key
stakeholders
• Clears political and organizational roadblocks
• Ensures availability of resources
• Monitors project status and progress
Project sponsor
• Approves plans, schedules, budgets, and deliverables
• Keeps the project focused on the goal
• Since the sponsor is outside the development team, the
project manager doesn’t control them
• Loss of a sponsor can kill a project
Project constraints
• Project constraints are anything that restricts or dictates
the actions of the project team. That can cover a lot of
territory.
• The triple constraints—time, resources, and quality – are
the big hitters, and every project has one or two, if not all
three, of the triple constraints as a project driver.
• Many projects in the Information Technology area, for
instance, are driven by time.
Project constraints
• Scope - The deliverables that the project team
must create and the activities required to create
them. Scope also includes the quality of the
work or deliverables that need to be created.
• Cost - The budget or cost to deliver the project.
• Schedule - The deadline by which the project
must be delivered.
Often represented by a triangle
Trade off triangle
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•
•
•
Other way of looking at it
Fast, cheap, good
Choose two
Know which of these are fixed or variable for every
project
• Time and cost deviations tend to be overruns whereas
product or performance will be a shortfall
Managing trade-off
• Any process for managing time cost and
performance trade-off should emphasis the
systems approach
• Recognise and understand the basis for project
conflicts
• Review the project objectives
• Analyse the project environment and status
• Identify the alternative courses of action
• Analyse and select the best alternative
• Revise the project plan
Sample Constraints
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Resource constraints
Delivery constraints
Environmental constraints
Budgetary constraints
Functionality constraints
Resource constraints
• Key staff resources will only be available part time
• Computer resources will only be available on a limited
basis
• Limited access to client resources
Delivery constraints
• Cannot accurately specify delivery lead times
• Approval of deliverables requires at least five working
days for review
Environmental CONSTRAINTS
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•
•
•
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Staff are unfamiliar with new development environment
Overtime ban restricts working time
Key decisions makers not on site and difficult to contact
Using an unfamiliar project management methodology
Project is dependent on other projects
Budgetary constraints
• Accuracy of schedule estimates is unreliable
• Outside consultancy requirements cannot be accurately
estimated
Functionality CONSTRAINTS
• Scope of project unclear
• The project dependent on data form external applications
Project Assumptions
• An assumption is the act of taking something for granted
or supposing. In a project sense, an assumption is
something we establish as true for the purposes of
allowing us to proceed with our project work, usually
during the planning and estimating phase. Assumptions
enable the project to move forward without absolutely
certain information
What happens when an Assumption is wrong?
• In a general sense we can say that if an assumption
turns out to be true, then the project benefits (or at least
doesn’t suffer). If an assumption turns out to be false,
then the project will suffer.
• To minimise the potential impact of false assumptions it
is the job of the project manager to monitor and review
assumptions
Resource assumptions
• Project staff resources will be available when and as they are needed.
• Required hardware resources will be available when and as they are
needed.
• Required customer resources will be available when and as they are needed.
• A significant percentage of the project staff will be experienced with the
technical environment.
• A significant percentage of the project staff will be experienced with the
operating environment.
• Access to industry experts and specialized skills will occur as needed.
• A "full-time" resource implies at least 35 hours productive work per week.
Delivery assumptions
• Deliverables will be subject to no more than a specific
number of review cycles.
• Equipment order lead times are known and can be
expected to be met.
Environmental assumptions
• No industrial action will be taken that will affect the
project.
• Issues will be resolved in a timely manner.
• The project organization described in the project plan
will be put in place.
• Systems components will be capable of being integrated
with minimum rework.
Budgetary assumptions
• The statistics used in preparing the estimates are
accurate within a given percent.
• No outside consulting will be required or Outside
consulting will be limited to a
• specified number of days at a specified rate per day.
Functionality assumptions
• The scope of the project is limited to that described in the
project charter.
• Formal charter and scope change procedures will be
followed