Project Charter Report: Theory, Elements, and Relocation Project

This report examines the theory and practical application of project charters within the context of an insurance company relocation project. The first section discusses the fundamental concepts of project charters, emphasizing their role in project management and detailing each element, such as title, scope overview, business case, background, milestone schedule, risks, resource estimates, stakeholder lists, team operating principles, and signatures. The second section presents a project charter for the relocation of an insurance company, addressing the scenario where the lease has expired. The charter covers the scope, business case, milestone schedule, risk assessment, resource estimates, and stakeholder analysis. This report offers a comprehensive understanding of project charter development, aligning with the textbook's guidelines and providing a practical case study for students of project management.

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Business Project Management
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Theory behind Project Charter.............................................................................................2
Why is a charter used?.....................................................................................................2
The project Charter..............................................................................................................6
Title..................................................................................................................................6
Scope Overview...............................................................................................................6
Business Case..................................................................................................................6
Background......................................................................................................................7
Milestone Schedule and Acceptance Criteria..................................................................7
Risks Assumptions and Constraints.................................................................................8
Resource Estimates..........................................................................................................8
Stakeholder List...............................................................................................................9
Team Operating Principles............................................................................................10
Lesson Learned..............................................................................................................10
Signatures and Commitment..........................................................................................10
References..........................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Project Charter is an important tool used in managing a project and is quite critical for
accomplishing success. Planning a project is a critical task and is similar to putting together a
large puzzle. Charter is formal document that act as an “informal contract” signed between the
team and the project sponsor (Badewi 2016). The successful approval of the prepared charter,
enables the team to work on with a detailed project plan. The report aims in discussing the theory
behind project charter and each elements of the charter and illustrates an instance of project
charter based on the provided project.
Theory behind Project Charter
A charter is the key deliverable that allows the team with the permission to work on
further planning of the undertaken project (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 66).
The team and the project sponsor is required to sign the charter to implement a project in an
efficacious manner.
Why is a charter used?
A project charter mainly has the following purposes-
1. The charter provides the manager an authorization to work further with the undertaken
project
2. A charter is an element or project management tool that enables the team and the
sponsor to prepare a mutual understanding (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 68)
3. The charter ensure that the team and the project sponsor commit to a specific task

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4. The charter is a screening tool that helps in screening out the poor projects.
Therefore it can be indicated that a charter is used to formally authorize a project and
further helps in establishing a mutual understanding among the team regarding the major project
deliverables. A mutual understanding is necessary to develop effective team work, trust and
communication among the team (Straw 2015). Therefore, a charter is required when there is a
requirement of taking a decision related to implementation of a project. There are certain specific
elements of a charter that are mandatory to be incorporated while developing a formal charter for
the project.
Typical Elements of a Charter:-
There are certain key components of a project charter that are mandatory to be included
in a formal charter. Although the term “charter” is a common standard, other names of this
document include “project request”, the “project submission form” and “project preplanning
form” (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 75). A charter is generally short and brief so
that it is easier for the team and the sponsor to examine the same. The length of a charter is
generally no more than four pages. The description of each of the components of a standard
charter are indicated as follows-
Element 1: Title: The title of the project is the first elements of a charter. The presence of a
expressive project title is needed for project identification especially in the organizations having
more than one project.
Element 2: Scope Overview: The “scope overview” section of a charter generally provides a
detailed idea of the major deliverables of the project and further indicates why it is necessary to
execute the project (Brewer & Dittman 2018). It mainly gives a high-level detailing of what is

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needed to be completed in the undertaken project. Therefore, it can be said that the scope
overview answer the question “What” is to be executed in an undertaken project. Quantifying the
scope generally allows the stakeholders to understand the size and the complexity of the project.
Element 3: Business Case: The “business case” is a critical component of a charter that gives a
justification of the purpose of an undertaken project (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018,
p. 70). This element of a charter is necessary to validate the needs of a project and should be
related to the organization’s strategy. Business case in a charter can either indicate a high level
rationale of the undertaken project or can indicate a high-level of cost and benefits associated
with a project.
Element 4: Background: Although the “business case” and “scope” section offers a brief idea
of the project to be executed, some stakeholder’s might need a detailed idea of the project and in
such cases, this element is incorporated in a charter. The inclusion of this element in a charter is
optional.
Element 5: Milestone Schedule and Acceptance Criteria: Milestone in a project depicts the
“summary level schedule”. Achievement of a milestone indicate completion of a specific task in
a project (Meredith, Mantel Jr & Shafer 2017). Acceptance criteria outlines the specifications or
the quality of the project to be achieved to ascertain that the project is accepted by the
stakeholders.
Element 6: Risks, Assumptions and Constraints: Risk is an indeterminate event having a
optimistic or an adverse effect on the project outcome and therefore, it is essential to document
the key risks and issues linked with an undertaken project, in a charter.

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“Assumptions” are the aspects that are considered to be true while planning a project and
if in case an “assumption” turns out to be false, it gives rise to a major risks in the project.
Constraints in an undertaken project is a warning factor that generally disturbs the
accomplishment of the project (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells 2018, p. 72). Documenting
all these three components in a charter is necessary to provide an idea of the major issues linked
with an undertaken project.
Element 7: Resource Estimate- In this section of the charter, the key equipment, services,
supplies and the human resources needed to execute the project is documented. This estimate is
necessary to prepare a rough project budget.
Element 8: Stakeholder List- A standard project charter generally documents the details of the
key stakeholders linked with a project (Kerzner 2017). This is the first step towards identifying
and prioritizing the stakeholders linked with a particular project.
Element 9: Team Operating Principles- “Team operating principles” is mainly needed to
improve the team functions and is also used to intensify the team effectiveness. The goal of
including this element in the charter is to ascertain that all the parties have an idea of what is
anticipated from the undertaken project.
Element 10: Lesson Learnt- Every project is unique in their own sense and therefore, a great
knowledge can be gained from the success and the failure factors of the past projects. This
element documents these knowledge which helps in improving the project performance.
Element 11: Signature and Commitment- The “commitment” section or the last element of a
charter generally documents the name of the individuals who are involved in a project (Heagney

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2016). This guarantees that the project team are formally committed towards the execution of the
undertaken project.
The project Charter
A project charter for the “Relocation of an Insurance Company” project is prepared and is
documented as follows-
Title
The title of the undertaken project is “Relocation of an Insurance Company”
Scope Overview
The in-scope needs of the proposed “Office Move/Relocation” project are indicated as
follows-
1. To vacate the current premises
2. To identify a new location in the nearby suburb
3. To accomplish the relocation in a minimum time with least disruption to the staffs and
the present customers
4. To ensure that packaging is done on Friday afternoon, and removal of the packed
materials and relocation of the office is done on Saturday and Sunday along with finishing the
office set up on Monday in the morning.
Business Case

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The aims of the undertaken relocation project is to find a new office premise as the
contract of the present office has lapsed and it would not be renewed. The office move is to be
executed in such a way that a minimum disruption occurs on the normal operations of the office.
Hence the relocation will be carried out on weekends so that there is very little disruption to the
normal work.
Background
The lease of the present office space of particular insurance company has lapsed and the
landlord does not wishes to renew the same. The premises is required to be vacated within the
time of two months and the project team has decided that they would take a maximum of 6
weeks to execute the relocation. The budget set for the Office move project is $100,000
Milestone Schedule and Acceptance Criteria
The “milestone schedule” and “acceptance criteria” of the undertaken Office move
project are indicated in the table below-
Milestone Completion Date Stakeholder Judge Acceptance Criteria
Requirements
assessment
6.04.20 Branch Manager Detailed
Specifications
identification
Finding new Place 13.04.20 Project Manager Favorable location a
Leasing New Place 20.04.20 CEO Lease for 5 years
Packing 24.04.20 Administration
Manager
To be completed in
Friday Afternoon
Relocation 27.04.20 Project Team To be completed on

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Saturday and Sunday
Set up 28.04.20 Project Team To be completed on
Monday
Risks Assumptions and Constraints
The key risks linked with the office move project are indicated in the table below-
Risk Risk Owner Response Plan
The new office has
insufficient space
Branch Manager The shortlisting criteria of the
new office should include the
space specification
Packing is not completed on
Friday
Administrative Manager Extra resources can be hired
to facilitate the packing
process.
The project could not be
completed in allocated budget
Sponsor The budget should be revised
Assumptions
1. It is possible to move all the office resources in two days
2. The cost of the lease of new office premises can be managed within the set budget.
Constraints

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The time and budget allocated for the project are two project constraints
Resource Estimates
The resource estimate are indicated as follows-
Money People Space
Lease- $60,000 CEO Dedicated Office space
Packing- $10,000 Project Team Dedicated Office space
Moving- $6,000 Project Team Dedicated Office space
Set up- $4,000 Project Team Dedicated Office space
Human Resource Cost-
$5,000
Project Manager
Equipment Cost $10,000 Project Manager
Total: $95,000
Stakeholder List
Stakeholder Priority Interest
CEO Key Serious adverse events,
progress
Project manager Other Purpose, risks and benefits,
protocol
Administrative Manager Other Protocol, safety reports,
changes

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Manager of Communications
and Information Technology
(CIT)
Key Serious adverse events,
progress
Team Operating Principles
1. Continuous resource Availability
2. Regular Meetings
3. Proper Communication flow
4. Decisions to be taken by the Project Manager
Lesson Learned
1. All associated parties should be accountable for achieving the goals specified for the
project
2. It is required for the key sponsor to remain committed to the project
Signatures and Commitment
CEO
Project Manager

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References
Badewi, A. 2016. The impact of project management (PM) and benefits management (BM)
practices on project success: Towards developing a project benefits governance
framework. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), 761-778.
Brewer, J. L., & Dittman, K. C. 2018. Methods of IT project management. Purdue University
Press.
Heagney, J. 2016. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Kerzner, H. 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kloppenborg, TJ, Anantatmula, V & Wells, KN 2018, Contemporary Project Management, 4th
edn, Cengage Learning, Boston, MA, USA.
Meredith, J. R., Mantel Jr, S. J., & Shafer, S. M. 2017. Project management: a managerial
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Straw, G. 2015. Understanding project management: Skills and insights for successful project
delivery. Kogan Page Publishers.

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