Project Charter, 1.1 Purpose What is the organizational strategic objective the project is meant to achieve? • What are the high-level project description and boundaries? • What is the business...

Project Charter,
1.1    Purpose
What is the organizational strategic objective the project is meant to achieve?
•    What are the high-level project description and boundaries?
•    What is the business rationale for the project?
1.2    Objectives
What is the organizational strategic objective the project is meant to achieve?
•    What is the justification?
•    What are the high-level requirements?
1.3    Overview
What are the objectives for the project?
•    What is the project scope?
•    What are the scope constraints?
•    What are the assumptions
1.4    Schedule
When will things be done?
•    What is the milestone schedule? (A maximum of 12 milestones)
•    What are the time constraints?
1.5    Resource Requirements
How much money is required?
•    What is the summary budget? (A maximum of 10 items)
•    What are the budget constraints?
1.6    Stakeholders
Who is involved in the project?
•    What are the personnel constraints?
•    Who are the key stakeholders for the project?
•    Who is the assigned project manager, responsibility, and authority level?
•    Who are the project sponsor and other persons involved in authorizing the project charter?
1.7    Risks
What are the major project (not business) risks?  Project risks are those events that impact the project objectives, the measure of success, typically on time, on budget, and on scope.
•    What are the high-level risks?
•    What is the risk appetite of the organization?
1.8    Evaluation Methods
What is success for the project and how will it be measured?
•    What are the measurable project objectives and related success criteria
•    What are the project approval requirements (i.e. what constitutes project success, who decides the project is successful, and who signs off on the project)?
2    Scope Statement and WBS
2.1    Project Scope Statement
The project scope statement defines the project, i.e., what needs to be done?  It addresses and documents the characteristics and boundaries of the project and its products and services and outlines methods of acceptance and scope control.  The project scope statement must be clear as it forms the basis upon which decisions will be made throughout the project lifecycle.  It provides a common understanding of project scope for all the stakeholders and undergoes refinement as changes are approved and are integrated into the scope of the project.


The project scope statement includes the following information:
1.    Detail Product scope description
•    What are the project and product aiming to achieve?
•    What are the characteristics of the product or service described in the project charter?
•    What are the quantifiable criteria that must be met for the project to be considered successful? Note that objectives should include cost, schedule, and quality measures that are quantifiable. Quantifiable metrics are more easily attained than unquantifiable objectives.
2.    Product acceptance criteria
•    What checklist will the client use to check if requirements have been fulfilled to their satisfaction?
3.    Project requirements and deliverables
•    List and description the major deliverables of the project whose full and satisfactory delivery would mark the completion of the project.  This should be focused on project deliverables that would be at level 2 of the WBS.
4.    Project exclusions
•    What is in and out of scope?
•    Exclusions should be listed because anything not explicitly included is implicitly excluded.
5.    Project constraints and assumptions