Developing a Charter: Elements, Decision-Making, and Project Selection Prioritization Matrix

This document provides information on developing a project charter, including the elements of a charter, the decision-making process for charters, and how to use a project selection prioritization matrix. It also includes examples of scope statements, a scope overview, milestone schedule and deliverables, initial risk identification, resources required, initial stakeholder identification, team operating principles, lessons learned, and commitment. Suitable for MNG00785 Project Management course.

MNG00785
Project management
Topics 1 - 3: Develop a Charter
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Contents
1 Developing a charter:....................................................................................................................3
1.1 Charter elements...................................................................................................................3
1.2 Charter decision-making........................................................................................................4
1.3 Project Selection Prioritization Matrix...................................................................................5
1.4 Assessment task one:.............................................................................................................5
1.5 Examples of Scope Statements..............................................................................................6
1.6 Scope Overview (word limit: 150)..........................................................................................7
1.7 Milestone Schedule and Deliverables....................................................................................8
1.8 Initial Risk Identification.........................................................................................................9
1.9 Resources Required.............................................................................................................10
1.10 Initial Stakeholder Identification..........................................................................................10
1.11 Team Operating Principles...................................................................................................10
1.12 Lessons Learned...................................................................................................................11
1.13 Commitment........................................................................................................................11
2 References:..................................................................................................................................11
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1 Developing a charter:
There are a number of steps to develop a project charter, and a number of charter elements. The
table below (Exhibit 3.3) displays the common elements in a project charter.
1.1 Charter elements
(Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 65)
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1.2 Charter decision-making
But not every project needs a charter, and not every charter is identical. Charters are scaled to
reflect the size of the project. Exhibit 3.2 from the book provides a useful guide to whether a charter
is needed, and the complexity of the charter if one is required.
(Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 64)
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1.3 Project Selection Prioritization Matrix
Below is an example of how calculations in a trade-off matrix are performed:
Project/Selection Criteria Criteria A Criteria B
Weight: 5 10 Total
Landscaping project 7 5
(5*7=) 35 (5*10=) 50 (35+50=) 85
Using the example, score each of the projects in the table below. Based on the score, which project
would you choose?
Project/Selection Criteria
Potential
Monetary
Gain
Success
Probability
Social
Opinion
Weight: 5 10 3 Total
Construction Project:
International Hotel, Hawaii 10 5 5
50 50 15 115
Construction Project: Local
Hotel, Brisbane 8 6 4
40 60 12 112
Infrastructure Project: High
Speed Rail – Sydney to
Melbourne 9 3 8
45 30 24 99
Investment project: The Old
Farm House 7 7 10
35 70 30 135
Answer:
 Investment project: The Old Farm House
Reference: (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, pp. 42-9)
1.4 Assessment task one:
The Project Charter is the first Assessment Task. See the UIG for more information, and the
Assessment Task instructions on the learning site. You should use these documents, along with the
marking criteria (also known as a rubric) to guide your development of your assignment. The
assessment task has two parts: the first is to describe the theory behind the Project Charter – you
should do that first, before you start you Charter so that you understand the underlying concepts.
Then complete the Charter. DO NOT submit this workbook as your assessment task – you must
create a new document.
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1.5 Examples of Scope Statements
The first thing you need to do is decide what your project will be, and create a “Scope Statement”.
(Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 71)
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1.6 Scope Overview (word limit: ~150)
Use your own words to convert your own project brief into a short scope overview.
The scope statement is a SMART summary of what the project will entail, i.e. what the project will
deliver to the project customer.
Project goals, on the other hand describe what the customer expects to do with the project
deliverables, e.g. increase sales by X%, reduce customer wait times by X minutes, etc.
For this exercise focus upon what the project will entail.
(Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, pp. 65-6)
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Write your scope statement in this text box
The scope of the project for moving the office to a new location is mainly elaborated below
by using the SMART criteria.
Specific: The main goal of the project is to move the office from its present location to a
new suburban location.
Measurable: The main aim of the project is to move the office to a new location within the
time period of 6 weeks.
Achievable: The goal of the project will be achieved by properly tracking the schedule of
the project effectively.
Relevant: Moving the present office from its current location to a new location is necessary
as the lease of the present office has expired.
Time-bound: The goal of the project will be achieved successfully within the time period of
around 6 weeks.

1.7 Milestone Schedule and Deliverables
The milestone schedule is “a high level plan that indicates a few significant accomplishments that are
anticipated over the life of the project.” (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 66).
Based on the project brief and the list of tasks, please list the milestones you would identify for this
project. The start and the end of the project are already given for you. Estimate a completion date
for each milestone, as well as what the acceptance criteria would be. Also think about who should
judge whether or not the criteria have been met (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, pp. 66-
7).
The exhibit below is an example of a milestone table. Note that the table must have a milestone
(usually a major deliverable), the completion date (not “from-to”, but a discreet date), how the
milestone will be judged to have been delivered (or not), and who will decide if the milestone is
acceptable.
(Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 73)
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Now create your own milestone schedule:
Milestone Completion
Date
Acceptance
Criteria
Stakeholder
Judge
Completion of initiation phase 13-04-19 Project manager,
CEO
Identifying reason
for the project
and its feasiability
Getting approval 08-04-19 CEO Approval for the
project
Completion of planning phase 18-04-19 Project manager,
HR manger,
financial manager
Proper plan for
the project
Completion of moving to a new
location
27-04-19 CIT, workers,
administer
manager
Moving new
equipment’s,
commuters to a
new location
Completion of execution phase 29-04-19 CIT, project
manager,
administrator
manager, workers
Moving to new
location
successfully
Project completion 30-05-19 Project manager Closure of the
project
1.8 Initial Risk Identification
Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, please identify at
least 4 potential risks to the project (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, pp. 67-8).
Project (Potential) Risks Risk Owner Contingency Plans
Budget shortfall Financial
manager
It is quite important to track
the budget of the project on
weekly basis.
Schedule slippage Project
manager
Tracking schedule for avoiding
delays is one of the important
plan for avoiding the issues
related with schedule slippage.
Absence of workers HR manager Part time workers must be
available for completing the
work.
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Problems in moving to the new location CIT manager The problems must be
identified at initial stage for
resolving the issues.
1.9 Resources Required
Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, please identify the
funding, workers and equipment required for this project, as well as potential other resources. Don’t
overthink this activity and keep it short and simple (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 69).
Funding: It is found that budget of around $100,000 is needed for moving the
office premise to a new location.
People: The people who are associated with the project are listed below:
 Project manager
 CEO
 CIT manager
 Administrator manager
 Subject matter expert
 Workers
 HR manager
 Financial manager
1.10 Initial Stakeholder Identification
Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, please identify at
least 4 stakeholders to the project, their interest and priority to the project(Kloppenborg,
Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 69).
Stakeholder Interest in Project Priority
CIT manager High High
CEO High High
Subject matter expert Low Medium
HR manager Low Low
Financial manager Low Low
Project manager High High
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Administrator manager High Medium
1.11 Team Operating Principles
Please list a minimum of 3 Team Operating Principles you believe will be important for your project
(Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, pp. 69-70):
# Team operating principle
1 The people who are involved with the project work must be treated with respect
2 The opinions of the project team must be respected
3 The project team members must be honest.
1.12 Lessons Learned
Please list a minimum of 3 Lessons Learned from past projects you believe can contribute to your
project (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 70):
# Lesson
1 It is quite essential to follow the project scope while progressing with the project.
2
It is necessary to resolve communication gaps that exists between the project team
members.
3
It is quite important to keep track on the schedule of the project for avoiding delays within
the project.
1.13 Commitment
Fill out the first column of the table below(Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 70):
Sponsor Department / Organization Signature
<Please Fill> N/A <Please Fill>
Project Manager Department / Organization Signature
<Please Fill>
N/A <Please Fill>
Core Team Members Department/ Organization Signature
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<Please Fill> N/A <Please Fill>
2 References:
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2),
pp.291-298.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Levy, O., Goldberg, Y. and Dagan, I., 2015. Improving distributional similarity with lessons
learned from word embeddings. Transactions of the Association for Computational
Linguistics, 3, pp.211-225.
Preston, J., Armstrong, J., Kovacs, A., Liu, R., Ye, H., James, P., Wang, X., Moller, F.,
Roggenbach, M., Nguyen, H.N. and Chen, L., 2016. DITTO Project Deliverable 1.3
Milestone 8 Towards Tool Interaction and Safety Assessment.
Todorović, M.L., Petrović, D.Č., Mihić, M.M., Obradović, V.L. and Bushuyev, S.D., 2015.
Project success analysis framework: A knowledge-based approach in project
management. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4), pp.772-783.
Too, E., Le, T. and Yap, W., 2017. Front-end planning-The role of project governance and its
impact on scope change management. International Journal of Technology, 8(6), pp.1124-
1133.
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Voinov, A., Kolagani, N., McCall, M.K., Glynn, P.D., Kragt, M.E., Ostermann, F.O., Pierce,
S.A. and Ramu, P., 2016. Modelling with stakeholders–next generation. Environmental
Modelling & Software, 77, pp.196-220.
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