Inputs in the Project Charter

004: Inputs in the Project Charter

What do you think is the first thing you should do, if you as a project manager was told by your boss that you will be assigned to a new project?  In this lesson, I will discuss the typical contents, key benefits, and the major inputs that should be used in developing the Project Charter.

 The very first thing that is done on a project is the development of a project charter. The document that formally authorizes you to do your work to apply resources to the project work. But you are not often involved in creating the project charter-in most cases, this is provided to you by the sponsor, the person who pays for the project. Without the project charter, Project Charter - KC .docx you don’t have the authority to tell the project team members what to do and when to do it, so the project charter should contain enough information to show everyone involved why the project is needed, who are the key stakeholders, and gives you the authority to proceed to deliver the product, service or result.  

Now, I will highlight the key benefits of the Project Charter:

·        Provides a direct link between the project and the strategic objectives of the organization

·        Creates a formal record of the project

·        Shows the organizational commitment to the project

You as a project manager should understand the input resources that should be used to create the project charter: Project Charter - KC .docx

·        Information about your project business environment (Enterprise environmental factors-external project team influences, Organizational process assets-internal project team influences)

·        Customer or your business requirements (business case and agreements)

·        Work that needs to be done (Project Statement of Work)

By now you should have a good understanding of the inputs and outputs of your project charter. The next step is to determine how to map the contents of the inputs to the outputs - an integrated representation, labelled as Project Charter to meet the stated objective, using various Tools and Techniques, as recommended in PMI PMBOK®.   

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