Project Management – Project Initiation & Project Charter

Project Initiation and Project Charter

1. Initiating process group, and project scope management key terms
   1. Project charter
   2. Constraints and assumptions
   3. Identify stakeholders
   4. Collect requirements
   5. Project scope statement
   6. Scope management plan
   7. Define scope
   8. Decomposition process
   9. Work breakdown structure
   10. WBS dictionary
   11. Some common reasons why projects fail
       1. Misunderstood customer needs – requirements
       2. Inappropriate budgets or schedules
       3. Over extended burned out project team members
       4. Results that fall short of current quality or tech standards
       5. Projects that don’t fit with organizations strategic goals
       6. Process Groups – Initiating
          1. Project selection methods – Usually selected by measuring their value to the project owner
          2. Internal business needs
          3. External influences:
             1. Problems
             2. Opportunities
             3. Business requirements
2. Formal decision models
   1. Benefit Measurement (comparative)
      1. Murder board
      2. Peer reviews
      3. Cost/benefit
      4. Scoring model
      5. Economic model
      6. Constrained optimization (mathematical programming algorithms)
         1. Linear
         2. Non-linear
         3. Integer
         4. Dynamic
         5. Multi-objective
3. Develop Project Charter
   1. Developing a document that formally authorizes a project or project phase.
   2. Documenting initial stakeholder requirements
   3. Identify stakeholders – Identifying and documenting relevant information for all people or organizations impacted by the project.
   4. Inputs
      1. Project statement of work
      2. Business case
      3. Contract (when applicable)
      4. Enterprise environmental factors (EEF)
      5. Organization Process Assets (OPA)
      6. Tools and techniques – Expert judgment
      7. Outputs – Project Charter
      8. The project charter
         1. Projects are authorized by someone external to the project
            1. Sponsor
            2. PMO
            3. Steering committee
            4. Project is issued/signed by: Sponsor, initiator, Mgt
               1. At a level of authority to be able to fund the project
               2. This signatures authorizes the project
               3. Identifies the PM as early as possible
                  1. Recommended that PM participate in charter development; may be delegated to PM.
                  2. PM should always be assigned prior to planning
               4. Charter provides authority to PM to use resources
               5. Documents: Initial project requirementsthat will satisfy the stakeholders needs and expectations
         2. Develop Charter Inputs
            1. Statement of work
               1. Narrative description of product or services
                  1. Business need
                  2. Product scope description
                     1. Product characteristics
                     2. Relationship to business need
                     3. Strategic plan – should support strategic goals
               2. Business case to justify project
                  1. Market demands
                  2. Organizational need
                  3. Customer request
                  4. Technical advance
                  5. Legal
                  6. Social
                  7. Ecological
               3. Contract (external customer)
               4. Enterprise environmental factors
                  1. Marketplace conditions
                  2. Gov’t or industry standards
                  3. Organizational infrastructure
               5. Organizational Process assets
                  1. Org standards
                  2. Processes and policies
                  3. Template (project charter)
                  4. Historical information
                  5. Lessons learned knowledge base
               6. Tools and techniques
                  1. Expert judgment – used throughout the project process
                     1. Provided by any group or individual with specialized knowledge or training
                     2. Internal experts: SME’s, PMO, Stakeholders,
                     3. External Experts: Consultants, Professional associations, Industry groups
                     4. Used to assess the inputs used to develop the project charter and address technical and management details during the process
               7. Outputs – what should be included
                  1. Project purpose/description
                  2. Business need
                  3. Project justification
                  4. PM assigned and level of authority defined
                  5. Summary budget, milestones, hi-level risks
                  6. Resources pre-assigned
                  7. Project objectives/success criteria/sign-off
                  8. High-level requirements
                  9. Product scope description = deliverables and business need they will satisfy

10.  Signed and authorized by project sponsor/initiator/senior management

Next Up: Project Scope