The inception of every project is a Project Charter. In the Initiation phase, the Project Charter is issued by the project sponsor and it defines the existence of the project. It captures high level project planning details like business need, scope, milestones, dependencies, risks and required resources.
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| Project Charter Template PPT |
About Project Charters
- The Charter is an important document which gives the project manager the authority to commence the project and acquire the required resources to support the project activities.
- In some cases the project charter is signed off by the Project Sponsor, while in some others there may be a group of approvers (all stakeholders) who need to sign off for the document to be considered approved.
- Once approved by the defined approvers, it cannot be changed or modified unless agreed by all the parties involved.
- This document helps to identify the major stakeholders of the project and sets clear expectations on the project goals and is used as a reference document throughout the project.
About Project Charter PPT Template
- Project Title: This field specifies the name of the project
- Project Start and End Date: This field specifies the timeline to complete the project.
- Project Manager: This field indicates the project manager who has the authority to execute the project.
- Project Sponsor: This field indicates the Project Sponsors who have initiated the project
- Business Need: This field captures the need for initiating the project. It helps to understand and specify WHY the project is being undertaken.
- Project Scope: This field defines activities that are in scope of the project. Items that are out of scope can also be mentioned in this field to set clear expectations.
- Deliverables: Every project undertaken will result in a tangible or intangible outcome. This field indicates the deliverable/goals that are expected to be achieved by this project.
- Risks and Issues: Very often, major risks and issues that are foreseen at the beginning of the project are indicated in this field. For e.g. Delays due to Data Dependencies on external teams, a personnel working on the project proceeding on planned leave resulting in delay in the project timelines
- Assumptions and Dependencies: Very often, assumptions and dependencies are made at the start of the project when certain events are expected to occur during the course of the project which may result in delay of the project timelines. Project activities that are dependent on each other need to be clearly stated in this field. For e.g. Data discrepancy maybe an assumption where there are large amounts of data involved, dependencies on Infrastructure teams for the hardware
- Milestones Schedule: This field indicates the major milestones the project aims to accomplish and the target completion date for each milestone. The charter can be used to track the progress of the milestones against the target dates mentioned in the document.
- Budget/Financials: Every project has a set budget and this field specifies the cost that will be incurred to undertake this project
- Project Team: States the personnel / members required to work on the project including the sponsor, project manager and other required resources
- Approval Committee: Every project charter needs to be approved by a defined set of approvers which includes the sponsor and other stakeholders. A project charter is considered approved once signed off by all the approvers.
To summarize, as per the Project Management guidelines, the project charter is a document that formally authorizes a project giving the project manager the authority to execute the project and obtain the required resources. This is a point in time document signed by all stakeholders and can be used as a baseline for any future changes on the project.