Tutorial on how to develop and prepare a Project Charter step by step along with a free project charter template and sample project charter.
Hello and welcome to my video on developing a project charter in which I’m going to include a sample template for a project charter for anyone who’s not familiar with what a project charter is we use a project charter to initiate a project this is typically the first document that you would create once a project is assigned to you sometimes the project charter is created before and then hand it over to you sometimes it’s created by yourself and so you should know how to develop a project charter anyone whose PMP certified probably knows what a charter is but may not necessarily have developed one maybe because your organization doesn’t develop one some organizations may call it a PID a project initiation document and that’s because they’re using a prince2 terminology no matter what we call it the project charter is supposed to do a couple of things assign you to project so everybody knows that you own this one project this way if you need any help then people can probably help you on it and number two highlight the key objectives of that project including scope time and cost why don’t we go ahead and take a look at what the project charter looks like and I want you to hang on as I discussed this I will share the link to where you can download this one document because I promise that I will include it in here it’s a very simple project charter that I think will do the job wherever you are so let’s go ahead and take a look at the project charter so here’s the Charter here what you’ll see one of the first things that I want you to notice is that this is a two-page document you can see that it says page 1 of 2 the document doesn’t have to be that long it is only supposed to highlight the key objectives or constraints that the project has to work with let’s take a look at the content of the project charter number one it has a title this sample that I’m showing you is for moving 100 people from a building from one building to the other so it says move off workplaces of 100 employees from building a row building be some organizations may want to include a project ID may be a set of numbers and letters that they can use to reference this specific project that is up to you by the way none of what you see here is mandatory so it’s your choice but some of it really has to be there like the start date and proposed end date so you could write proposed end date or you could write end date this is when the project is starting June 1st and this is where it’s ending on June 15th this is a two weeks project the budget that we have for this one move is $30,000 now mind you although we have a beginning date and an ending date and a budget it doesn’t really mean that you will you know a hundred percent stick to these you use these as guidelines and then you will understand the requirements that this move is going to have or whatever the project is that you have and then figure out the time frame and then the budget right so you want to get it as close as your management’s objective so they want this done as soon as possible by June 15th I know it says 2015 they want it done by then and they want to spend only 100 only $30,000 so you want to try to fit that within the budget and the time frame that they gave you the project manager’s name should be here I’m a big fan of Steve Jobs I just put Steve Jobs jr. but he doesn’t work for us but you would want to name the project manager there and then the scope of the project alright the scope of the project is not intended to be the full full scope of this one project what it intended to be is a high-level scope of the project so let’s take a look at what I’ve written here move off workplaces and personal things for 100 employees I’m reading this for 100 employees from building a to building be the scope includes setting up the IT network at the new location set up partitions at the new location pack all personal belongings in boxes and seal them wrap all furniture arrange for vehicle to do the move move all items the new location and unpack and set up their tests all electrical network connections on-site monitoring for five days at the move now the items that you see here it it’s up to you how much details you want to put you could just stick with whatever the project scope is that is written up on the top but you know I would rather have a little more information give into well I’d rather have a little more information documented because honestly this Charter is to authorize me the project manager to work on the project or if you’re the PM I am the sponsor and me and you are agreeing on this so you want to see the Charter as an organizational Memorandum of Understanding MOU it is never going to be a contract not in this not in this form in shape this is an internal document between you and your management on what this project requires so the scope of work here is just to show your understanding of what your management wants out of you in addition to detailing as much as you can on the scope but not really going into a full plan in addition to that what you want to do is you want to highlight some key milestones that you and your management can expect so for example I’ve listed here you know I’ve listed here some key dates right that I feel certain things will be done but I’m also showing that on June 15th the move will be complete right I want to demonstrate to the management that we’ll be done by then but in the interim I want to you know tell them what I’m thinking that all packing should be complete by specific date this will be the move date unpacking and setup will should be complete by this date this is by no means a final schedule what its intended to do is just give a high-level indication of what you think might happen all network and electrical connections should be tested and on-site technical support would start on June 10th and then on-site technical support period will end and the move ends on June 15th here so the milestones the high-level milestones will tell management that this is how you were thinking and may raise the level of confidence that they have in your project next thing that you want to include are the key stakeholders and roles that would be required for this one project these are not going to be people working on the project but instead people that will support the project so for example the CEO is the sponsor of the project so obviously if you need to change the timeline or the budget and so on or the scope trim it expand it you want to talk to the CEO because the CEO is the sponsor it’s not always the CEO but in this case we’re saying the CEO is the sponsor you want to know who your sponsor is because that’s the person who’s asking for this one project to be done we you know I’ve listed here as example facilities they’re gonna help with the move IT obviously unpacking and you know setting up all things related to the computers and so on HR will notify an update staff security we’ll make sure that we you know we have proper procedures that we’re following though this could be relating to you know moving things in and out using elevators so on and then the PM that’s me will manage all aspects of the project all right next things you want to show on your project Charter are the risks assumptions and your constraints so the risks here and assumptions can almost be the same thing in a way like opposite things typically any assumption that you make a condition that you expect to be there during the time of the project if it does not happen the way you thought then you’re probably going to have some risk so for example I’m assuming that resources for the move will be available right well what if the resources are not available on the date of the move so you know it you may feel like you’re overdoing it between risks and assumptions but you know sometimes it is necessary to let management know that these risks do exist that you know equipment could be damaged resources may not be available your xxx connection at the new building may not really be ready and network and computer issues could happen after we completed the move those are things you can expect to go wrong you know by the nature of the project we don’t have to spend time analyzing risks in a massive way for project charter it’s just what you think might go wrong high level with this type of project right assumptions you’re making there will be resources available utility connections will be working well and employees will participate in packing their own personal stuff so the only unique things that I really put in assumptions here is the third one that I’m assuming that they’re gonna pack their own stuff now if they don’t that’s going to affect the timeline of my project is now we have to spend more time packing their stuff and figuring things out the other two these are actually risks and if you want you can leave them out all right all assumptions you make if they don’t materialize there are risk in a way constraints in in our case here we have you know a limitation no outsourcing is allowed and limit of June 15 that is an absolute limit you cannot really shift it beyond that date so there you have it this is what goes into a project charter let’s just take a look just do a quick recap what you have is a project title like that so what you have is a project title you can add an ID the start date the end date of the project the budget who is the PM what is the scope of the project alright so if you can add some details to the scope you can if you can put some key milestones that’s nice now mind you you don’t really have to put milestones but it’s nice if you do so key stakeholders and roles these are people that will support your project without which you might have difficulty getting your project through these are not the people that are going to be working on your project right these are just people who support your project from the organization what are there is that you see what assumptions are you making and what are the constraints so that’s what a charter is what I’m going to do is I’m going to show you take a look now at the screen I’ll put the link to this on the screen and if for some reason that link stops working right so there it is right now so if it stops working at some point just go down to the comments and you should see an updated link that you can use if you don’t do if you don’t see that just send me a quick comment you know stating that you can’t see the link I will update it at that point I hope I hope this has been of benefit to you you know if you have been developed charters before I hope this can be helpful I mean if you still have issues or if you have any questions on how to actually go through with preparing a charter feel free to just let me know just put a comment in there I call my comments just put a comment that this is where you’re struggling with it and I’ll be happy to help you with that all right well that’s all for now I’ll see you on the next video let me know if there are other tools or templates that you would like me to put up here and I’ll be happy to consider those alright see you on the next video bye bye
