From the course: Project Management Foundations

Create a project charter

From the course: Project Management Foundations

Create a project charter

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- Is the project definition done? Check. Is the scope statement ready? Check. Now you're ready to get approval to move into planning your project. You also put together a project charter that officially authorizes the project and publicizes it to the world. The whole point of defining a project is to give the project customer or management team the info they need to approve the project. The review process varies from organization to organization. Typically, the customer compares the project information to acceptance criteria that align with the organization's goals. There are three possible outcomes from this review. The project is approved to proceed to planning, it's denied, or it's sent back for rework. When the project is approved, the final step in initiation is to create and distribute a project charter. This document authorizes and publicizes the project. Here's what typically goes into a project charter. The name of the project, the purpose of the project, a short summary of its goal and objectives will do, a high level project description, which may include things like high level success criteria, requirements, scope, risks, assumptions and constraints, a milestone schedule, cost estimate, and list of stakeholders. Remember, you'll flesh out all of these components once you start planning your project. You also include information about the project manager. The project manager's name, the project manager's responsibilities, including a brief description of the work the project manager does, the extent of the project manager's authority, and the specific work the project manager has authority to perform, such as requesting resources or signing contracts. Finally, the charter includes a formal declaration of the sponsor's support for the project. Think of this declaration as a power of attorney given to the project manager by the sponsor or customer. You might wonder why a project charter describes the project manager's authority. It's because project managers don't have the kind of authority that managers in a structured organization do. Project managers' authority lasts as long as the projects they manage and applies only to those projects. For that reason, it's important that people understand what a project manager is authorized to do. When the project charter is ready to go, the project sponsor distributes it to everyone affected by or involved in the project. Once the project has been authorized and your authority as project manager is common knowledge, you're ready to begin planning the project.

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