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The Charter: Selling Your Project

The Charter: Selling Your Project. Alex S. Brown, PMP Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, USA Session TLM02. Question for the Audience. How many of you are PMPs? How many of you know what a charter is? How many of you use a charter for all projects?

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The Charter: Selling Your Project

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  1. The Charter: Selling Your Project Alex S. Brown, PMP Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, USA Session TLM02

  2. Question for the Audience • How many of you are PMPs? • How many of you know what a charter is? • How many of you use a charter for all projects? Questions from Rita Mulcahy’s Sept 23, 2003 presentation, “What Does a PM Really Need to Know?”

  3. "You're Fired!" What Happens Without a Charter?

  4. Topics for This Session • Identify your charter • Charters and organizational strategy • Negotiate using your charter • Processes, policies, and procedures for charters Ask questions anytime

  5. What is a project charter? • Document issued by sponsor • Authorizes existence of the project • Provides project manager with authority • Provides authority to apply resources to activities • Should provide ROI and other detail Definition from PMBOK Guide 3rd Edition

  6. Are They Charters? • “Go Do It” e-mails or memos • Standard, formal project-profile form • Resolution at a committee meeting • Hallway conversations about the project • A collection of documents with a signed cover-letter from sponsor

  7. Authority, Authority, Authority • “Three A’s” of charters are required • ROI and other details optional • Documentation optional (?) • Charter can be VERY short

  8. Changing Charters • New charter for each phase • Build on old charter or replace it • Early charters are short and high-level • Later charters might be full project plans, with a sign-off • PM may have authority to issue charters to sub-teams and phases

  9. But My Sponsor Won’t Write a Charter… • Sponsor “issues” charter, but might not write charter • Project manager can write it • Ensure sponsor buy-in before authoring • So long as the sponsor sincerely authorizes project and project manager, there is no harm

  10. The Charter and Organizational Strategy

  11. Charters Tie Projects to Strategy • Strategy seems lofty and out of reach for many project managers • Whether to start a project or not is the most strategic decision in the project lifecycle • Project managers’ best opportunity to engage in strategic choices is when writing the charter

  12. Tips to Tie Charter to Strategy • Keep charter short and results-oriented • Relate project to specific organizational goals • Specify methodologies and implementation in the plan, not the charter • Read and reread organization mission statements, and match them to your charters

  13. The Moment of Opportunity • Project manager can insist on charter at the moment of assignment • Don’t wait • Don’t give up the chance to say “No” • Start your project as a professional, with a charter

  14. Why Charters Appeal to Strategists • Clear, simple statements of purpose • First drafted before a penny has been spent • Earliest opportunity to accelerate or halt the effort • Breakthrough strategies often require projects for execution

  15. Negotiating Using a Charter

  16. How Do Project Managers Get Resources? • Persuasion • Boss • Own staff and budget • Sponsor • The Charter Which one would you rather use every day?

  17. The Charter Answers Key Questions • Who gave you the authority? • How much authority did you get? • Why is this so important? • Any negotiator, naysayer, or skeptic will ask these questions

  18. Negotiate Using the Charter • Write the charter to be action-oriented and specific • Use the document as proof of authority • “See, the sponsor wants it done” • For the tough negotiations, get as far as possible using persuasion and the charter, then pull in the sponsor

  19. Processes, Policies, and Procedures for Charters

  20. Charters Demonstrate Organizational Maturity • Document decisions to authorize projects • Clear starting point for planning processes • Tie projects to organizational strategy and plans • Control authorization of projects and allocation of resources to them

  21. Sample Charter Process • Idea • Opportunity Document • Chief Officer and other approvals • Present to executive committee • Approved opportunities are projects

  22. Benefits of a Formal Process • Executives decide early • Start-up of new projects is controlled • Authority is clear and well-documented • Audit, financial, and governance controls are satisfied • Portfolio of projects balanced and prioritized

  23. Areas for Further Study • Program and Portfolio Management – beyond “project selection” to “project start-up” • Teaching charters beyond “PM 101” level • What makes a GREAT charter? • Use charters to study ROI, organizational maturity, and strategic alignment

  24. Final Questions for the Audience • How many of you know what a charter is? • How many of you now recognize that you already have a charter for your projects? • How many of you are going to improve your project charters when you get back to the office?

  25. Contact Information Session TLM02 Alex S. Brown, PMP Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, USA alexsbrown@alexsbrown.com http://www.alexsbrown.com

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