Why your project needs a charter, an article by Brian Pinkston, PhD, PE, PMP, CEFP ((Initia Project Solutions, LLC) and Dr Leesi Gborogbosi DBA MBA MSc MCIPS FIMC FCA CMC (Gabriel Domale Consulting).

What’s the most important document in a project’s life? Is it the budget or financial reports? Is it a set of technical diagrams or construction drawings? What about quality control charts? All of these are important, crucial even. But are they the most important? 

No, the single most important document is the project charter. Here’s how the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK, 6th edition) puts it:  

The project charter is the document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. (p. 81)

Pity the poor project manager (PM) assigned a project without a charter! This is a recipe for muddled deliverables, frustrated stakeholders, blown budgets, and overrun schedules. 

Potential Risks

When a project first begins everyone involved is hopeful for its success. There is much goodwill among participants. However, human nature is such that stakeholders often “hear what they want to hear.” Their expectations for project deliverables may be overly rosy. They may not be clear-minded about the risks involved. They may engage in “selective listening” about budgets and schedules. They may forget promises made as to resource commitments.

A project charter can mitigate these risks. While the PM may draft the charter, it’s the project sponsor’s job to issue the document. After all, it’s the sponsor who has the organizational authority to create the project and to then delegate authority to the PM for conducting the work. The charter thus provides the PM with the authority - formal, political, and practical - to get the job done.

Critical Drivers

The PMBOK identifies a number of inputs to the project charter. The business case for the project is foremost. Why does the enterprise actually need this project? There are numerous possible drivers: An opportunity in the market. A new customer expectation. Legal or regulatory changes. A social need. A technological advance. Finally, given the need, does the hoped-for-return from the project justify the enterprise’s investment in it? 

So-called enterprise environmental factors (EEFs) and organizational process assets (OPAs) are also crucial inputs to the project charter. The former includes things like relevant standards and regulations, market conditions and outlook, the political climate, the social context, the organization’s structure, and so on.

The latter includes items such as the organization’s framework for overseeing projects, its “institutional memory” as to how projects are best managed, and its formal or quasi-formal processes for getting work done. 

So, what information is actually in the project charter? Here are key elements identified in the PMBOK:

• The purpose and rationale of the project.
• The objectives -- and associated success criteria -- of the project.
• High-level requirements for the result, service, or product the project is meant to deliver.
• High-level description of the project, its boundaries, and key deliverables.
• High-level consideration of project risk.
• High-level milestone schedule.
• List of key stakeholders.
• Financial resources set aside for initiating the project.
• Final approval requirements and exit criteria for the project.
• Assigned project manager with defined responsibility and authority.
• Sponsor(s) of the project.
• Assumption log. (This is a living document. It records assumptions made and constraints faced throughout the project, but especially at the beginning.)

Key Principles

The project charter is, as it were, the project in a nutshell. Again, from the PMBOK:

At a high level, the project charter ensures a common understanding by the stakeholders of the key deliverables, milestones, and the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the project. (p. 81)

To put this in Shakespearean terms, if Hamlet were a project manager he “could be bounded in a nutshell and count [himself] a king of infinite space” -- as long as he had his project charter!

Or, switching the picture slightly, the charter is the project in acorn form. If you get all the right pieces in the charter, if you get buy-in from the stakeholders, and if you have the strong support of a project sponsor, your project is positioned to grow into a large and beautiful oak. 

Take-away

Note that actually creating a project charter does not have to be a highly formal or complicated exercise. For small projects, it could take the form of a simple document -- an email, even -- that outlines the elements noted above. The important thing is to get these things documented so that everyone involved is aligned as the project begins.

So, to all the project managers out there: The next time you’re assigned a project, ask whether it has a charter. If it doesn’t, push to get one created -- even if you have to draft it yourself! If your supervisor or client doesn’t see the need, point them to the PMBOK -- the standard for project management. 

Authors

Brian Pinkston PhD, PE, PMP, CEFP (Initia Project Solutions, LLC) | United States

Dr Leesi Gborogbosi DBA MBA MSc MCIPS FIMC FCA CMC (Gabriel Domae Consulting) | Nigeria

(This article draws from Section 4.1 Develop Project Charter of the PMBOK, 6th edition (pp. 75 - 81))