Develop Project Charter

Develop Project Charter process is performed by the project sponsor. This process is the first process to kick start any project. The primary output of this process is Project Charter. Through this document, the project sponsor formally authorizes a project manager to apply organizational resources for the success of the project or project phase, whatever is the scope of the project charter. If the project charter is missing then the project manager does not have a mandate to use organization resources, neither s/he knows where s/he should go in the case of trouble or where should s/he go to get the money.

If a project is not given a project charter by his/her manager, then s/he should first create a charter based on his understanding and get it signed by the purpose who he knows as the sponsor of the project.

While writing a Project Charter we need to understand that we are authorizing the right project. A right project is one that is doable, where investment can be justified, success and failure risks are understood adequately and there is an end-user of the output of the project. This work is very serious and without proper research work and consideration if you start a wrong project then we ensure the failure of a project at the start. No plan is a plan of failure.

Develop Project Charter may be the first process in the project life-cycle but there are many processes that happen for the conception of the project. Most of the time project managers come in the project at this stage and they do not know what work has been done before the project life-cycle starts. Therefore, it is the project sponsor’s accountablity to transfer all the documents and knowledge to the project manager so that s/he can consider the history and background of the project conception at the time of planning. Continuous business justification is also one of the responsibilities of a project manager. S/he cannot do it without knowing the value of the project in the eyes of the sponsor, customer, end-user, and communities.

Develop Project Charter (Process Summary)

This table is based on PMBOK 6th Edition of PMI

Inputs

Tools & Techniques

Outputs

PMBOK 6th Edition Process Summary Table