Project Charter

Congratulations! Your project business case has been approved. The next step is to create a project charter. The project charter is important as it provides stakeholders with an understanding of what the project entails and other relevant information so that all parties have a good understanding of the purpose of the project. Remember, the project charter is a living document that stakeholders, especially ones that join the project in the later phases, understand and can help better define stakeholders' roles. The following are important sections to be included in your project charter.

• Project Title/Name: What will the project be known as? What shall we call it? Each project is normally given a unique name.
• Business Need: Why should we do this project? What will be gained, changed, or modified? Is there a financial or business reason to do this project? This area should contain any feasibility studies used to advance the project.
• Measurable/Business Objectives: What objectives, if any, of the company is this project designed to meet?
• Requirements
• Approval Requirements
• Product Scope Description
• Milestones and Deliverables: What are the key milestone dates associated with the project?
• Schedule and Benefit
• Establish Project Manager and Project Sponsor: Who will lead this project? Who is the Sponsor?

Now let's look at communications and meetings for your project. Your communications management plan, which must include a meeting agenda, is due this week.

• Create a communications management plan and discuss the types of meetings that would be needed. You must also include a progress meeting agenda that you would use with your team.
• You may use the Communications Management Plan Sample located in the Project Document Samples section.

Communications Management Plan

The goal of a communications management plan is to ensure that communication, which is important for all projects, is established so that the lines of communication are defined so that project managers, project team members, the client/customer, and all relevant stakeholders understand how to properly ensure communication is directed and recorded so there is no confusion regarding proper communication. Remember, your responsibility as a project manager is to control the flow of communication. Not having an effective communications management plan can reduce the influence a project manager has. Also, keep in mind communication and types of communication are different for every organization. Your focus for your communication plan will focus specifically on items/events. Therefore, create a communication management template by item/event. You can use Excel or Word. The columns will be (Review video for more details about each column):

• Item/event
• Purpose
• Audience
• Date/frequency
• Who is responsible?
• Authority to release?

Meeting Agenda

All meetings during the life of a project are required. Rather than conducting meetings without any planning, create the meeting agenda that has what you feel needs to be discussed on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. Understand that the agenda can be updated for each meeting, but having a structured template gives a you a strong base to ensure meeting will be productive.