Introduction to Public Safety Project Management. Table of Contents PROJECT CHARTER TEMPLATE. Project Charter... 2 Project Charter (con't)...

Transcription

1 Introduction to Public Safety Project Management PROJECT CHARTER TEMPLATE Table of Contents Project Charter... 2 Project Charter (con't)... 7 Page 1 of 8

2 Project Charter **050 All right. The second one is the project charter. Remember what I said, that the project charter is like an executive summary of the whole project? And really, until the project charter is signed by the executive sponsor, there really isn't a project. This can be a point where you get the project charter done, and the project manager and the project executive sponsor, they read through it and he goes, "Whew, we can't do this. We don't have the money," or, "We don't have the time," or, "We don't have the resources to do this." So this is an opportunity before the project even Page 2 of 8

3 gets off the ground and even approved to start for them to say, "You know what? We need to put this off. No, we can't do this." Because you're giving an overview of what the project entails. It's scope, time, cost, and everything else. So let's look at our project charter template. This is-- you're going to start creating this after your decisionmaking structure is in place that you guys have all been working on. It's broken down the same as the decision-making structure template. It has two parts: the model content and the detailed steps, and then the blank template for you to be able to fill out for your project or project scenario, in this case. So, step one in the project charter is to craft the vision statement and project goals. Step two is to include some background in some business case data. Business case answers the simple question of, "Why are we doing this?" Now, there is a full other formal business case process that can be pages and comparisons and this and that, but in this place here, you're going to do some background information, why we need to do this, and support your business case, but that's the question you want to answer if anybody asks you, "What's the elevator pitch on why we're doing this?" So that's step number two. Page 3 of 8

4 Step number three: Define your project scope. What's in, what's out, what do we need-- not what we want. Step four is to develop your project objectives. What do we-- again, a very over-- broad sense-- what do we want this project to accomplish? Again, we give you some example content there; one being, "Bring the public safety team to current technology standards available in MDT technology." Objectives: Think of them, again, in that old acronym of SMART-- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely-- when you're working on your objectives. Step number five is to document assumptions and constraints. An assumption is that-- let's say-- there's some examples in here-- at least two of the identified products will meet the functional and technical requirements. Or technology subject matter experts will be available to provide technical expertise and support. You're coming up with assumptions of the project. All right? These are generally out of your-- are out of the control of the project management team, but they're things that you do have to take into account. And then some constraints are something that could keep the project from maximizing its full Page 4 of 8

5 potential, such as funding is limited, project manager is going to leave in 10 months and the project is 12. Those are some constraints. They're knowns. All right? Project timeline-- project needs to be completed in two years. Those are things that are constraining your project. The chief tells you that you have to have it done in six months. Those types of things are constraints. Step six: Document some project risks. Again, high-level. You're just starting out. Document your risks. This is the first part of your risk management plan. So document those risks. Step seven is to detail project staff resources and responsibilities. Kind of just did some of that in your project decision-making structure. So some of that information should translate right into this project charter. Each step should build on the other. We're not duplicating effort just for the sake of the exercise. So these things actually will build on each other towards your full project plan eventually. So at this point though, you're going to identify those roles and responsibilities. Step eight is to develop a high-level timeline. This is your first crack at putting a schedule to this. What's realistically how long is this going to take us. Page 5 of 8

6 Step nine: Develop your preliminary budget. Put together those ballpark figures. Start thinking about not only the one-time, but the recurring costs. Put some numbers down on the paper that you're going to give to the executive sponsors to say, "Realistically this is what we think it's going to take." And then step ten is to develop the project approval requirements. This is your first crack at developing some of those functional performance technical requirements at a high level. Then when all of that is said and done, at the very end, you need to make sure that it is signed, sealed, and delivered by the project manager to the executive sponsor. It's all signed, and then a project charter is distributed to everybody that's involved in the project. Now, that's the template sample content. After that, you get your nice blanks to be able to fill in for this project, for this scenario, this exercise. All right? You guys are going to have 35 minutes to work on your project charter. Page 6 of 8

7 Project Charter (con't) **051 Bonnie Maney: So you just had the chance to work in your groups and complete a project charter, the basic elements of a project charter, based on the scenario that you were given. All right? These are the elements that you probably got to address, or should have been able to address during that time. Looking for that purpose justification, business case. You guys hit objectives, high-level risks, milestone schedule, those types of things. And just to reemphasize what we talked about before, this is an executive summary type of approach to your project that you would give to the executive sponsor Page 7 of 8

8 and they would approve, or disprove- - disapprove-- whether you're going to go through with this project or not, and go and then develop everything further into a project plan, where then you really get down into your detail on your budget and your milestones and all of that type of thing. It's really important, that last step, is to have those signatures on it. That provides that accountability. All right? It also gives you a document that provides a point in time. So if you have those-- or the goals and objectives of the project-- because-- and that's important in case you have a situation like we were talking about, where the project manager is leaving or executive sponsor retires, or something happens. It gives a document to go back to and say, "This is what we were thinking at the time." When everything else gets out of skew and scope-creep starts occurring, you can go back to that charter. All right? Page 8 of 8