Team Charter as Part of Project Management Training

May 16
18:06

2008

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

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Developing a team charter is a significant part of project management training. Without this, participants will just grope blindly on what they want to achieve.

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There are essential key elements in project management training. There are methods that one needs to learn and apply to make a project successful. It is of significance that people who undertake projects should have mentors who will guide them all throughout the span of the undertaken projects,Team Charter as Part of Project Management Training Articles especially if these projects will help reduce the costs incurred by the company or improve its processes to streamline methodologies currently applied.The first key step in project management training is to plan the scope of the project. Without adequate planning on the in scope and the out of scope of the project, one will simply be overwhelmed at how the certain problem can get to a larger scale that will include other departments as well. One should take note that the project at hand should only cover a major pain point or area that needs immediate attention. The other problems related to this should not be at all entirely discarded but should be given less priority. During training, the trainer should put much emphasis on the fact that projects should focus on the problems that are costing the company the biggest, not in the reverse order.Once the scope has been identified, a project charter should be formulated. A project charter is also called a Team Charter. This term is used mostly as a politically correct term since any project will involve a team. A Team charter should contain elements that can be understood in a snapshot. Team Charters should only be high-level analysis. The details should come later at the details part of the project.A Team Charter should have a business case. This should explain why the project should be done. A business case should present to the top management the need for the project. This should clearly explain what will happen if the project is not prioritized and what will happen if the project were successfully implemented.Next, the Team charter should present the Problem Statement. The problem should be clearly defined in this part. The pain point of the company and how it impacts the business should be clearly stated. The costs and revenue loss should be shown here in a snapshot type of calculation. Ideally, the cost or business revenue loss should be translated in a per annum figure since majority of businesses do an annual review to check if the business did grow or not.After the Problem Statement, project management training indicates that the participant should learn how to come up with a Goal Statement. This should clearly emphasize what it is that the team needs to achieve. The Goal Statement should have goals that are measurable in nature such as price, percent, number, etc. There is no point stating a goal that cannot be quantified.Lastly, Operational Definition should be defined. This means there has to be clear and concise definition of what is being targeted and how a defect is measured or identified. For example, any product that has a blemish is a defect.After these things are learned, the participant can move on to the actual project tactics or approaches. Team Charter is just a chunk of the big pie of project management training.