Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Project Charter gives a clear picture of the project and the rationale behind it. It fully
explains the intended path of the project from conception to desired outcome. The
Charter answers the question: Is there a compelling business need for the project?
The purpose of the Project Charter is to provide the approval/funding authority enough
information to decide if the project should proceed to the next stepProject Feasibility
Analysis.
Why? To collect information needed to evaluate whether or not a project should be
fundedit is a GO/NO GO/GO BACK test that must take place before a project
starts.
Who? Created by the project sponsors program staff and the project manager, with
assistance from other managers and technical staffthe core team members.
When? Development time depends on the size of the projecta general rule of thumb
is that development of the Project Charter should be less than 2 weeks.
What? An initial statement of the project scope and objectives, the problem it
addresses, who benefits, successful completion criteria, and a brief alternatives
analysis.
Project Charter Review Questions
Is the Project Background described completely and clearly?
Do the Business Objectives address the problem described in the
Problem/Opportunity Statement?
Do the Functional Requirements (if the project includes information technology)
relate to the Business Objectives?
Does the project sponsor clearly receive benefit from the completed project?
Are the Successful Completion Criteria clear and measurable?
Is the Project Scope stated so that it is clear what the project is to provide and
what it will not provide?
Is the Project Objective Statement clear and concise?
Are all Assumptions and Constraints identified?
Are the Alternatives reasonable?
Do the Project Milestones relate to project deliverables?
1. PROJECT NAME.........................................................................................3
2. OVERVIEW..................................................................................................3
2.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND..........................................................................3
2.2 PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT(S)..................................................3
2.3 PROJECT OBJECTIVE STATEMENT............................................................4
2.4 PROJECT SCOPE.....................................................................................5
2.5 PROJECT SPONSOR................................................................................6
2.6 PROJECT PRIORITY AND STRATEGIC FIT..................................................6
2.7 PROJECT ORGANIZATION.........................................................................7
3. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES................................................................10
3.1 BUSINESS OBJECTIVES..........................................................................10
3.2 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS.................................................................11
3.3 SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION CRITERIA.....................................................12
4. PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS...............................................................12
4.1 ASSUMPTIONS.......................................................................................12
4.2 CONSTRAINTS.......................................................................................12
4.3 ISSUES/CONCERNS/RISKS.....................................................................12
4.4 IMPACT ASSESSMENT............................................................................12
5. PROJECT RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................13
5.1 EXISTING SYSTEM.................................................................................13
5.2 ALTERNATIVE ANALYSIS.........................................................................14
5.3 RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE................................................................14
5.4 PROJECT MILESTONES..........................................................................14
5.5 COST ANALYSIS.....................................................................................14
5.6 SOURCE OF FUNDING............................................................................15
1. PROJECT NAME
Choose a short, energizing name or acronym that describes your project. Be specific and
make sure you're not duplicating another project's name.
2. OVERVIEW
2.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND
This section describes the context surrounding the project, and presents the primary
motivation for the project. It includes a high-level description of the business area, the
current situation, the desired situation, and the gaps that exist.
The following list identifies potential items that could be included in the project
background:
A general description of the business functions, the specific services, and the
customers
The sequence of events or conditions that contributed to the current problem or
opportunity
Contributing historical data
Relevant features of the program areas involved
The manner and extent to which information technology is currently applied
A definition of the affected units of work and estimates of the quantity of work
processed
2.2 PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT(S)
This section includes a concise statement of the problem(s) that negatively impacts
current business operations or the specific opportunity(s) that would make the business,
or program operations more effective.
Avoid describing the symptoms of the problem instead of the problem itself. Symptoms,
which may seem to be the problem include:
Processes which are old, confusing, convoluted, redundant, labor intensive,
undocumented, or nonstandard
Data which is incorrect or incomplete
Data which requires excessive effort expended in collection, multiple collection
points, or different versions of the truth
Too many manual processes
The symptoms of a problem are important in that they help lead to a solution. However,
symptoms alone are not enough to justify a project. To make sure that you have reached
the real problem, ask yourself So what? for each item you have included as a problem.
If you have identified a business problem or opportunity, your answers should fall into
one or more of the following categories:
PROBLEMS
Excessive costs incurred in operating an existing program
Generation of additional program costs
Services at an unsatisfactory level according to a specified policy
Workload / staff increases
Quality or timeliness of information
Additional requirements mandated by law or Federal regulations
Limitations on the capability or capacity of current resources
The following are example problem statements
Statistics of UI claims filed on Fridays are not available until the following
Friday.
The current process requires 3.6 PYs of overtime to process travel claims.
The current error rate with travel expense claims averages 60%.
OPPORTUNITIES
Avoidance of future operating costs
Improving mission critical customer services
Workload / staff reductions
Ability to add capacity to current resources
The following are example opportunity statements:
Provide the capability for state employees to access and calculate retirement
payments while reducing the number of phone calls into the customer support
unit.
Call center processing allows the department to continue with the current staffing
level, and improve service, even as the number of calls increases.
Since revised Federal law allows state access to Social Security Administration
information, this information can be used to reduce the workload required to
maintain current addresses on all individuals.
System Upgrade project. Listed under the Provides column to signify that when the
project is completed, this is what the project results will provide. Listed under the Does
Not Provide column signifies those things that will not be included in the intended
project results.
Identify how the project fits with the organizations strategic/tactical vision(s).
Determine which set of visions/plans the project must satisfy or be tested against.
Then describe the projects alignment and/or variance from the existing
vision/plan.
Identify the fit with organizational strategies. Sometimes the project may affect
one or more local department strategies or business plans. Identify which one(s)
and describe the projects alignment and/or variance.
Identify the fit with legal/regulatory direction, if appropriate for this project.
Describe how the project complies with the organizations legal mandates.
2.7 PROJECT ORGANIZATION
PROJECT ORG CHART
To better assess this projects impact on the organization, provide an organization chart
that includes the project team, including number and classification of team members and
the impacted program organization(s).
PROJECT STAKEHOLDER ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
A formal project structure provides participants with a clear understanding of the
authority and responsibility necessary for successful accomplishment of project activities,
and enables project team members to be held accountable for effective performance of
their assignments.
Briefly describe the roles and responsibilities of the major participants in the project.
These will probably include, at a minimum, the project manager, executive management,
program management and staff, and core team members. In particular, if outside vendor
resources will be used to assist with the project, clearly differentiate between the roles
and responsibilities of State staff versus those of vendor staff. Include tasks such as data
conversion, training, project management and oversight, and ongoing maintenance, as
appropriate.
and approaches
Review project risks and establish mitigation
procedures
Develop an action plan for any product that does not
pass acceptance test
Obtain user and management approval of tested
solution
Close-out open action items
Assist in contract close-out
Develop post-implementation report
Conduct project retrospective
Core Team Members Represent business needs/requirements for Identify
project alternatives
Implement solution within budgeted cost and
schedule
Support project planning and tracking
Provide task estimates.
Ensure that requirements are feasible and appropriate
for available resources
Analyze requirements for completeness, consistency,
and ambiguity
Ensure that all team members understand the project
plan
Identify staff training needs and provide qualified
staff
Establish the project's facilities and environments
Ensure that the project team staff fully understands
requirements.
Review technical approach
Assign tasks
Assist in development of estimates and schedules
Track the work effort and submit status reports
Conduct internal and external work product reviews
Coordinate with quality assurance, review quality
assurance results, and correct any deviations
Establish testing plan and coordinate test activities
Accept problems and schedule fixes
Identify risks as they are found
Participate in change request reviews
3. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
3.1 BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
Briefly state the business objectives that effectively respond to the problems and/or
opportunities. Include at least one objective for each problem/opportunity mentioned in
Section 2.2, Problem/Opportunity Statement. Objectives define the significant results
that must be achieved by this project. When writing the objectives remember to focus on
What the system or product will do, not How. Each objective should:
Directly relate to a problem/opportunity item
Be realistically achievable
Be measurable (this means that progress on the objective can be tracked,
measured and compared)
Indicate the direction of expected change (more, less, same as etc.)
Indicate the degree of expected change (percentage, prior year level, numbers of)
Business objectives usually fall into one of the following four categories: increasing
revenues for the organization, avoiding costs, improving customer service, or complying
with federal and state governmental regulations. For example:
Provide statistical data of all UI claims filed on Fridays as required by state
mandate.
Eliminate 3.5 PYs for processing travel claims, reducing the cost per travel claim.
Verify current address for 75% of new claims filed, reducing errors and rework
per claim.
3.2 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS (IF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IS REQUIRED)
Identify the essential characteristics that the proposed automated solution must have if it
is to satisfy the objectives. Functional requirements describe how the project result will
function and provide a list of the minimum technical features that must be in place when
the project is complete. Each functional requirement should track back to a business
objective, and should be specific enough to be used to measure the successful completion
of the project. The primary functional requirements appear on the Project Data Sheet as
Ability To statements or Performance Objectives depending on the nature of the
requirement.
Depending on the project, the functional requirements are written in terms of:
Types of data, in terms of groups, size, retention period etc.
Database characteristics
Processing procedures
Processing functions needed to support the program process
Types of output, in terms of groups, volume, timing, location, quality, media etc.
Types of input in terms of groups, volume, timing, location, quality, media etc.
Software constraints
Equipment/hardware constraints
Staffing constraints
Security or confidentiality risks
Hardware/software interfaces
Development scheduling constraints
Data constraints
Organizational constraints
Legislative constraints
Functional requirements usually describe very high-level, but specific features of the
resulting system. For example:
The system must have on-line access to SCDB U1 claim records.
The system must print credit card numbers on travel vouchers.
The system must be able to access the SSA UNIX-based database.
3.3 SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION CRITERIA
Describe how the success of the project will be determined from the customers
perspective. The completion criteria should be in quantifiable/measurable terms so that
there is no doubt as to the projects success. If the business objectives have been
sufficiently quantified, meeting them constitutes the successful completion criteria.
Quantifiable measures of customer use and/or satisfaction with the final product also
measure the successful completion of the project.
4. PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS
4.1 ASSUMPTIONS
List any assumptions that were made in defining the project. Assumptions can affect any
area of the project including scope, the stakeholders, the business objectives, and the
functional requirements. A basic assumption behind most projects is that the problem
should be solved. If any assumptions have been made regarding staffing, e.g. specific
technical or business skill sets and/or individuals necessary to complete the project, list
these assumptions here.
4.2 CONSTRAINTS
Identify known or suspected constraints to the execution of the project. These constraints
describe boundaries within which the project must operate and which also may be
obstacles to the projects successful completion. For example, constraints could include
any of the following:
Limited head count
Lack of or limited knowledge
Short window of opportunity
Staffing constraints
Delivering the product within a specific time frame
Delivering the product within a limited cost
Be as specific as possible and describe the constraints in the context of the project.
4.3 ISSUES/CONCERNS/RISKS
Identify major items that could cause the project to fail. Concentrate on those items,
which are outside the jurisdiction of the project and could be show-stoppers to the
success of the project. Include what mitigating steps can be taken to reduce each of the
risks.
4.4 IMPACT ASSESSMENT
The Impact Assessment identifies any systems, processes, or projects that will impact, or
be impacted by, the proposed project. The nature of the impact, the owner, and action
required should be addressed. For example:
A new software system may increase the number of calls (transactions) to the call
center.
Deployment of a new software package may require all PCs to be upgraded to the
latest version of the operating system.
Introduction of a new product into the market may render certain current products
obsolete, and they may need to be retired (e.g., existing warehouse stock may need to be
liquidated).
The implementation of a project may impact the redesign of the database structure
used by another project currently under development.
In the case of related projects, it is helpful to describe the nature of the dependency. The
project being planned may be dependent on another project, be interdependent with
another project, or have projects that depend on it. The nature of the dependency can
include:
Data: The project shares data with another project.
Function: The project shares common functionality with another project.
Staff: The project shares staff with another project.
Technology: One project installs the technology that another requires.
Funding: The projects share funding arrangements.
Include any dependent or interdependent projects on the Project Data Sheet under
Dependencies.
5. PROJECT RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 EXISTING SYSTEM
Briefly describe the current method of operation. If an automated solution currently
exists, include a general description of the system procedures, inputs, outputs, overall
costs, PY numbers and PY costs. In addition, include pertinent information from the
following topics as necessary:
Current system objectives
information technology capability. If the proposed solution will increase program income
(i.e. tax revenues, collectable audit exceptions, accounts receivable, etc.) such increase
should be reported as negative numbers under Program Income.