If your project suffers from wavering objectives, unclear boundaries, lack of executive support or opposing stakeholder positions, a project charter can help.  A project, like an expedition, needs direction, boundaries and support before you embark.  It should be clear what the project intends to achieve, in what time frame, at what cost and under what conditions.  The process of developing the project charter and the document itself can ensure that you get off to a good start.

The most successful projects have three key forces behind them from the start:

• The project’s intentions and boundaries are clear.
• The project sponsor authorizes and supports the project, and his or her expectations are understood.
• Key stakeholders have a voice and are in alignment with the project’s intentions even if they don’t agree with everything.

The project charter development process gets these three forces working for you.  Even if your firm does not have a formal initiation process or project management office, you should develop a project charter for each project.  Project charters apply to all projects.  The benefits are significant for cross-functional projects and can be surprisingly significant for intra-functional projects. 

How to Get Started
The Project Management Institute’s “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” states that the project charter is developed by the project sponsor external to the project organization.  Practically speaking, in law firms it is the IT project managers who develop the project charter with the project sponsors.

Start the project charter development process by identifying the key people who must support the project, authorize the project and provide the vision.  The project sponsor is the person with the need and the vision and is usually the one who initiated the project.

I also recommend seeking executive sponsorship if the project sponsor is not the executive head of the department.  Executive sponsorship gives the project executive visibility, authorization and influence.  This is especially important for cross-functional projects.  If the project sponsor is not from the IT department, get support from senior IT leadership.  IT projects consume significant resources, so IT leadership needs to be involved.  Finally, identify the key stakeholders, the heads of all the departments that will be affected by the project.

Meeting with the Sponsor
Next, meet with the project sponsor who initiated the project.  Your objective in this meeting is to learn about the project’s intentions:  the requirements, the description of the final product or service, the business needs, how the final product or service will meet the business needs and the project’s justification.  You must also document the project’s boundaries:  high-level scope, exclusions, assumptions, constraints, funding and organizational contributions.  For more information about the recommended content in the project charter, review the PMBOK Guide.

You must also take this opportunity to introduce the project sponsor to the concept of involving the other people who are affected by the project.  Explain the reason behind your project sponsor and stakeholder list, and then collaborate with the project sponsor on strategies for bringing in the other sponsors and key stakeholders. 

Finally, make sure you understand what the project sponsor’s view of a successful project is and if there are any special requirements for the project sponsor.  In the end, you are performing this work for the project sponsor who will judge the project’s success or failure.

If you have any problem getting your first meeting with a project sponsor, you may have an uncommitted project sponsor.  This is not uncommon for executives, but it could happen with any project sponsor.  Work alone or with your IT sponsor to explain to the project sponsor the type of commitment that is needed for the project to proceed.  Consider alternatives with the project sponsor — for example, assigning someone else within the organization to take on the sponsorship role.

Drafting the Charter
Your next step is to start drafting the project charter.  You may find this difficult the first couple of times you do it, but after a few project charters you will get the hang of it.  Most people find it difficult because certain scope aspects of the project are still unclear.  If this is the case, it is up to you and the project sponsor to decide if the ambiguity will be clarified now or if it is a detail to be clarified as part of the project.

Everything else should be straightforward.  Keep in mind that the project’s intentions and boundaries can change once the project is started.  The advantage of the project charter is that it is clear when there is a change, so the change can go through a formal change review process.

Once you’ve met with the project sponsor, meet with the IT sponsors and the executive project sponsor.  Go through the same interview process.  It is possible that the IT sponsors choose to defer questions about the vision to the project sponsor, but they will make significant contributions to the rest of the project charter.  For example, if the budget is controlled by the IT department, an IT sponsor could declare a constraint that there is no budget for outside consulting.  Each sponsor will have a different emphasis and provide valuable information for your project.  Revise the project charter after you have completed the sponsor interviews.  Review the project charter draft with your project sponsors, and make the requested changes. 

Conduct Stakeholder Meetings
Now you are ready to meet with the key stakeholders.  This group may not have the authority to authorize the project, but they can certainly make project life difficult if you do not include them.  For example, it would be foolish for the IT department and the finance department to move forward on an accounting system replacement without involving the marketing department, which relies heavily on the system’s information and interfaces. 

Conduct your key stakeholder meetings in the same manner as the sponsor interviews, but make sure the key stakeholders know their role is different from that of the project sponsors.  Record each stakeholder’s comments.  After your interviews, discuss the comments with the appropriate sponsors.  It is inevitable that in addition to support, there are conflicting positions, concerns, opposition and required clarification.  Again, make revisions to the charter per the sponsors’ instructions.

Now, you should pull your sponsors and key stakeholders together for a project charter review meeting.  The meeting gives the stakeholders the opportunity to verbalize their comments and ask questions.  It also allows the project sponsors to respond to the inquiries.  Your meeting goal is to get the sponsors in agreement with the project’s intentions (if they are not already) and for the key stakeholders to be in alignment with same.  The stakeholders may not always agree with everything, but getting them to accept and support the project is incredibly important for a project to be successful.  Use your judgment when requiring participation at a meeting.  There are many instances where the executive sponsors or lesser involved key stakeholders don’t need to be there.  In all cases, though, the project sponsors need to be there along with any significant key stakeholders.

Last Step:  Signatures
The last step is the best step:  signatures.  I guarantee odd facial expressions if your sponsors and key stakeholders have never had to sign such a document.  Some will resist, but you will insist.  I recommend two signature pages:  the first for the sponsors and the second for the key stakeholders.

Get the key stakeholder signatures first.  Because the key stakeholders don’t have the authority to approve the project and don’t always agree with everything, you should introduce the signature page with language such as:  “I read the project charter, contributed in the development process and provided my comments.”  Such language helps the key stakeholders feel more comfortable supporting the project but not feel accountable for the decisions in the project charter.  You can take it a step further by allowing each key stakeholder to write a formal comments document to be submitted with his/her signature.  It’s yet another way that the stakeholders can maintain their support and limit their liability.

The key stakeholder signatures and final comments are presented to the project sponsors for their signatures.  The executive sponsors usually like to be the last people to sign the charter.  The key stakeholder comments that are submitted with the project charter document are not intended to initiate a project charter revision.  If there are any comments that require a change, it’s best to get the signatures, document the change as a formal project change and keep it as an addendum to the project charter.  The last thing you want to do is request another round of signatures.

Your project charter document is now your project’s compass and your official authorization to move forward.  Everyone is clear about what needs to be done, you know what expectations need to be managed and everyone is supporting you.  With a completed project charter, you have harnessed the forces that will propel your project to success.

About our author . . .

Alex Tait works in Chicago where he is Manager of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP’s Program Management Office.  Previously, Alex held consulting and leadership positions at two software development firms in Chicago, and he has nearly 10 years of project management experience.  Alex can be reached at  atait@sonnenschein.com.