The Charter: Selling Your Project
Delivered at the PMI North America Congress in Toronto, Canada
Recorded September 12, 2005
Presented by Alex S. Brown, PMP. Find out more about Alex at http://www.alexsbrown.com/.
About Alex S. Brown, PMP
- Manager of Strategic Planning
- Works at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, USA
- 15 years experience in financial services
- Website www.alexsbrown.com
- Active volunteer, speaker, and writer
Why Charters?
Question for the Audience
- How many of you are PMPs?
- How many of you know what a charter is?
- How many of you use a charter for all projects?
Questions from Rita Mulcahy’s Sept 23, 2003 presentation, “What Does a PM Really Need to Know?”
Keynote Speaker: Keith Harrell
Wiggle Like a Dog!
The FEELING of a Charter
Picture by intuitives, downloaded from sxc.hu. Used with permission.
What Happens Without a Charter?
Topics for This Session
- Identify your charter
- Charters and organizational strategy
- Negotiate using your charter
- Processes, policies, and procedures for charters
What is a project charter?
- Document issued by sponsor
- Authorizes existence of the project
- Provides project manager with authority
- Provides authority to apply resources to activities
- Should provide ROI and other detail
Definition from PMBOK Guide 3rd Edition
Are They Charters?
- “Go Do It” e-mails or memos
- Standard, formal project-profile form
- Resolution at a committee meeting
- Hallway conversations about the project
- A collection of documents with a signed cover-letter from sponsor
Authority, Authority, Authority
- Authority is required
- ROI and other details optional
- Documentation optional (?)
- Charter can be VERY short
Changing Charters
- New charter for each phase
- Build on old charter or replace it
- Early charters are short and high-level
- Later charters might be full project plans, with a sign-off
- PM may have authority to issue charters to sub-teams and phases
But My Sponsor Won’t Write a Charter…
- Sponsor “issues” charter, but might not write charter
- Project manager can write it
- Ensure sponsor buy-in before authoring
- So long as the sponsor sincerely authorizes project and project manager, there is no harm
The Charter and Organizational Strategy
Question from the Audience
How important is it to get a charter in writing? Authority seems to be the key, but I need clarification here…
Question from the Audience
Does Sarbanes-Oxley require documenting a charter?
Charters Tie Projects to Strategy
- Strategy seems lofty and out of reach for many project managers
- Whether to start a project or not is the most strategic decision in the project lifecycle
- Project managers’ best opportunity to engage in strategic choices is when writing the charter
Tips to Tie Charter to Strategy
- Keep charter short and results-oriented
- Relate project to specific organizational goals
- Specify methodologies and implementation in the plan, not the charter
- Read and reread organization mission statements, and match them to your charters
The Moment of Opportunity
- Project manager can insist on charter at the moment of assignment
- Don’t wait
- Don’t give up the chance to say “No”
- Start your project as a professional, with a charter
Why Charters Appeal to Strategists
- Clear, simple statements of purpose
- First drafted before a penny has been spent
- Earliest opportunity to accelerate or halt the effort
- Breakthrough strategies often require projects for execution
Negotiating Using a Charter
The Charter Answers Key Questions
- Who gave you the authority?
- How much authority did you get?
- Why is this so important?
- Any negotiator, naysayer, or skeptic will ask these questions
Negotiate Using the Charter
- Write the charter to be action-oriented and specific
- Use the document as proof of authority
- “See, the sponsor wants it done”
- For the tough negotiations, get as far as possible using persuasion and the charter, then pull in the sponsor
Processes, Policies, and Procedures for Charters
Charters Demonstrate Organizational Maturity
- Document decisions to authorize projects
- Clear starting point for planning processes
- Tie projects to organizational strategy and plans
- Control authorization of projects and allocation of resources to them
Sample Charter Process
- Idea
- Opportunity Document
- Chief Officer and other approvals
- Present to executive committee
- Approved opportunities are projects
Charter Template
- Keep it simple and short
- Minimal information
- Title
- Description
- Objectives
- Size
- Criticality
Sample Charter Process
- Idea
- Opportunity Document
- Chief Officer and other approvals
- Present to executive committee
- Approved opportunities are projects
Benefits of a Formal Process
- Executives decide early
- Start-up of new projects is controlled
- Authority is clear and well-documented
- Audit, financial, and governance controls are satisfied
- Portfolio of projects balanced and prioritized
Areas for Further Study
- Program and Portfolio Management – beyond “project selection” to “project start-up”
- Teaching charters beyond “PM 101” level
- What makes a GREAT charter?
- Use charters to study ROI, organizational maturity, and strategic alignment
Question: Samples? Templates?
Now available at alexsbrown.com:
NY State Office of Technology Templates
Available through their Project Management Guidebook at http://www.oft.state.ny.us/pmmp/guidebook2/index.htm
Areas for Further Study
- Program and Portfolio Management – beyond “project selection” to “project start-up”
- Teaching charters beyond “PM 101” level
- What makes a GREAT charter?
- Use charters to study ROI, organizational maturity, and strategic alignment
Question: Update Your Charter?
If you have a lot of change, should you update or restart your charter?
Final Questions for the Audience
- How many of you know what a charter is?
- How many of you now recognize that you already have a charter for your projects?
- How many of you are going to improve your project charters when you get back to the office?
Contact Information
Alex S. Brown, PMP
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, USA (as of 2005)
Real-Life Projects, Inc. (as of 2007)
alexsbrown@alexsbrown.com
http://www.alexsbrown.com
Sign up for the newsletter at alexsbrown.com
Click here to play the audio. Problems? See the
main page.