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  4. 4. Initiation Phase
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Project Charter

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Project Charter is one of the project management document you can create with our project management lifecycle tool.

Project charter is a document that describes what the project is and how to approach it. It lists the stakeholders, the final deliverables and their acceptance criteria. It’s a key document in project management, and the team will refer to it throughout the life cycle of the project. The following sections describe the contents of a typical Project Charter document in detail.

This article shows you how to develop a Project Charter.

Activity 1: Assign Project Manager

Assigned by the project sponsor, project manager is responsible for managing and completing the project on behalf of the sponsor. The project manager develops the Project Charter and maintains all project documentation during the course of the project.

Activity 2: Confirm Project Summary

Provide a description of the project and the business needs it intends to fulfill. The information will be pre-populated based on project summary provided when developing the project proposal. In this step, you need to review and possibly revise the project summary.

Project Charter: Project Summary

Activity 3: Review Project Risks

Identify risks to which the project will be exposed. Assess likelihood of each risk occurring and its impact on the project.

Project Charter: Project Risks

Activity 4: Confirm Customers and Final Deliverables

Identify who will benefit from this project, and list the key outputs from the project, known as the final deliverables.

Project Charter: Customers and Final Deliverables

Activity 5: Confirm Project Success Criteria

Identify the principles or standards used to determine or judge project success. The information will be pre-populated based on the project success criteria entered before. In this step, you need to review and possibly revise the information entered.

Project Charter: Project Success Criteria

Activity 6: Confirm Critical Success Factors

Review and possibly revise the factors that must be in place to ensure success of the proposed solution.

Project Charter: Critical Success Factors

Activity 7: List and Describe Assumptions

List and describe assumptions made in the decision to charter this project.

Project Charter: Project Assumptions

Activity 8: Define Project Management Milestones

Provide a list of project management milestones and deliverables.

Project Charter: Project Management Milestones

Activity 9: Identify Project Stakeholders

Describe the core roles and their responsibilities

The roles and responsibilities of project team members and other stakeholders must be clearly defined in any project. In this step, you are required to identify the core stakeholder roles of the project. Examples of core roles include: Project Manager, System Developer and Business Analyst.

Project Charter: Core Project Roles

Enter the contact information for each stakeholder

Identify and enter the contact information for each stakeholder, which includes the address, mobile phone number and email address.

Draw a project organization chart

Describe how the project organization is to be structured, using an organization chart.

Project Charter: Organization Chart

Activity 10: Identify Resource Requirements

Identify the resources that are required to complete the project. Include the amount and the expected source that provides the resource(s).

Activity 11: Understand Project Management Repository

Understand Project Management Repository

Project Management Repository is a holding area for all project management resources (e.g. documents, deliverables, and references) produced and required during project life cycle. This activity requires the project team to understand how to use the Project Management Repository in managing resources.

Open the Project Management Repository under the ITSM menu in the application toolbar (or you can open it from the Perform Action area for now). To store files in Project Management Repository, drag the files you want to store into the appropriate drawer. For example, you may drag procurement documents (e.g. signed contracts, purchase orders, statements of work) into the corresponding drawers under the cabinet Procurement Documents.

Project Charter: Project Management Repository