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approaches to documenting and managing project activities (in 24 percent of organisations), difficulties in allocating resources (20 percent), and too many projects/not the right projects (17 percent).
Very low on the list of problems is the issue of projects always late and over-budget (7 percent).
Not only was this issue not one of the biggest problems, it was seldom a problem at all (only 16 percent).
These conclusions are among the results of a 2009 survey of 74 project management practitioners by the US Centre for Business Practices, the research arm of the consulting and training organisation, PM Solutions.
A similar survey conducted in Zimbabwe using the same criteria would probably yield similar if not more distressed results.
Companies (and Government) are keen to implement several projects without paying details to formal documentation required upfront in appropriate detail before implementation.
Today we shall discuss the three fundamental documents that must be produced in a series as part of the roadmap to implementation of any formal project that deserves to obtain buy-in from the stakeholders and minimum failure possibility.
Well before a project plan is drawn up, the project business case and the project charter must have sailed through as the first and second documents respectively.
The project plan is the most common document that most project managers and sponsors usually rush to table without consideration of the two preliminary documents that give birth to the planning.
In the previous articles we elaborated what the project plan is, its purpose and structure, today we will examine the business case and the project charter.
The Business Case
All projects are conceived as a result of a particular need that has arisen in society or within an organisation. These needs can be classified into three categories of market-driven needs, crisis driven and change driven.
It follows that projects can equally be classified into these three groups as well.
The business case is a document (commonly referred to as the project proposal) that is prepared by initiators of the project to sell the project idea.
The purpose of a business case is to justify the need for the project and convince sponsors that investment in the project is worthwhile.
The business case often describes the cost-benefit analysis as well.
The business case may be written by the persons or people who have realised the need and are therefore initiators of the project.
The business case must be solid enough to obtain buy-in from the sponsor.
Many brilliant project ideas driven by genuine needs die a stillbirth due to a poor business case or are obscured from potential sponsors.
Market-driven organisations that value innovation promote a culture of “business casing” among their team members knowing well that today’s business cases may be tomorrow’s cash cow projects.
In the UK all projects using the PRINCE2 methodology require the production of a specific business case. However, there are glitchy situations where the business case requirement has been controversially argued as not justified.
Imagine the tsunami crisis that hit Japan recently giving immediate birth of crisis-driven projects; there was surely no time to sit down and table business cases for the sponsors to release aid to the humanitarian disaster situation.
The Project Charter
The project charter is the official, written acknowledgment and recognition that a project exists. It ties the work of the project with the ongoing operations of the organisation.
A senior manager or project sponsor usually signs it and it gives the project manager the authority to assign organisational resources to the project.
The layman terminology equivalent to the charter is the Memorandum of Understanding.
The charter documents the business need or demand that the project was initiated to address, and it includes a description of the product, service or result of the project.
It is usually the second official document of the project once acceptance of the business case has been granted.
Project charters are often used as a means to introduce a project to the organisation.
Since this document outlines the high-level project description, the business opportunity or need, and the project’s purpose, executive managers can get a “first-glance” look at the benefits of the project.
Good project charters that are well documented will address many of the questions stakeholders are likely to have up front.
Acceptance of this document by the sponsor will allow the project manager to prepare a scope statement and project plan (including project schedule and other management plans.)
It provides the project manager with the authority to apply organisational resources to the agreed project planning activities.
The historic Zimbabwe Global Political Agreement (GPA) of 2008 that gave birth to the inclusive Government is a good example of a project charter.
The major highlights of any project charter are the signatory commitments by the sponsors and the project managers at the bottom of the document.
Once the project charter has been signed, the project manager is mandated to choose the project team that he intends to work with and then start planning.
The project manager (and his team) is responsible for bringing out the project plan, which should be accurate and complete as far as possible without being several volumes in length.
It is a document that allows the project manager to manage the details, and not be managed by the details.
The common error is that most project sponsors impose a project plan on the poor project manager who was not involved in the planning process and demand results from the document.
PMIZ will soon be carrying out “Project Stress Tests” across a countrywide sample of running projects in commerce, public sectors and industry and would be keen to involve project managers who volunteer their project involvement in this non-commercial service.
l Peter Banda is the secretary-general and chief executive of PMIZ. Send your views, comments and PRINCE2 training bookings via email; [email protected]; website link www.pmiz.org.zw