2.9. CHARTERING THE EFFORT

A project charter is an agreement between all interested stakeholders (e.g., perform team, sponsors, subject matter experts, end users) regarding:

  • Objectives

  • What will be done

  • How it will be done

  • By whom

  • Risks and mitigation strategies

  • Assumptions

  • Success criteria

Think of the charter as a contract between those sponsoring the initiative and those performing the initiative. It documents understanding to minimize the impact of such conditions endemic in organizations as selective memory. The project charter is a living, breathing document that is subject to change. However, changes must be understood and often signed off by key stakeholders. Second only to performing stakeholder analysis, an IT portfolio management charter is one of the most important items to create and the least frequently created in practice.

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