ASSIGNMENT

In this assignment, start the process of building your own dream home (this is a theme that we will carry on throughout this course) - why a dream home? A dream home is a concept that we can all relate to and it has all of the elements of a project according to the PMBOK Guide: 'A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result'.

ASSIGNMENT PURPOSE

In this assignment you will create your dream home's project charter. According to the PMBOK Guide: A project charter is a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

ASSIGNMENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Your personal learning objectives for this assignment are to:

• Develop an understanding of how a project charter is used within a project environment.
• Demonstrate a practical understanding of the information content needed within a project charter.
• Describe a project using project management terminology, concepts and industry best practices as outlined in the Glossary of Terms section of this assignment.

"Dream Home Charter" Background

In this assignment you will demonstrate appropriate information content for a project charter. Information provided to you is limited - you are expected to 'make up' information where gaps exist in the provided information, and present what information you feel would be appropriate to complete the assignment.(Note: You are not expected to be an expert in house design, and you will not be assessed on the accuracy of the information provided - only on the appropriate demonstration of PM terms and concepts.)

Dream Home Details

• For this project, you take on the role of the project sponsor (homeowner) to create a project charter to define your dream home.
• The bank has approved you for a loan of (a lot of money) to build your dream home wherever you would like to build one.
• The work on the project can be divided up into several main areas:
  • 1) Landscaping (excavation, foundation, grading, driveway);
  • 2) House Construction (frame, roof, siding);
  • 3) Inside Work (floors, ceilings);
  • 4) Infrastructure (electrical, plumbing and mechanical);
  • 5) Management (management activities); and
  • 6) Other (inspections and milestones).

With this minimal, high-level information, you can now begin the journey to your dream home by defining the project charter.

GRADING RUBRIC

For this assignment, use the following project charter template and be aware that each section has grades assigned to it.

Section	Maximum Mark
FORMAT: (Professional, business-quality document)	3
GENERIC CONTENTS: (title page, Table of Contents, bibliography)	3
PRESENTATION / GRAMMAR AND SPELLING: (Articulate, clear, concise, well developed (avoid verbose and excessive prose)	3
Project Charter Sections
Project Background	6
Project Purpose (Goal)	6
Project Objectives	6
Scope & Out-of-Scope Items	3
High-Level Assumptions	7
High-Level Constraints	7
Known Problems, Anticipated Issues, and Potential Risks	7
Requirements	7
Deliverables	7
High-Level Milestones	7
Project Stakeholders	7
Project Manager's Responsibilities and Authority	7
Payment Schedule	7
Approval Statement and Sign-off	7
Total	100

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

• Length: Approximately 6-9 pages (not including cover page, Table of Contents or bibliography).
• Your objective: Your objective on this project is to demonstrate your knowledge of the project management-related tools and techniques covered in the course notes and the PMBOK Guide.
• Follow the template:When creating your assignment, follow the provided template. Partial marks can be awarded on sections - while no marks can be awarded for a missing section.No marks will be awarded for additional sections (that were not called for in the template).
• Individual or team assignment:Group work is permissible and encouraged. Let the facilitator know when you form a group. All group members' names need to appear on assignments.
• Third-party material: Doing research for this project is encouraged - however, directly including 3^rd party material is not. If you do include 3^rd party material, you need to indicate that the material came from a 3^rd party, and it must be properly cited and referenced.
• Identification: Please ensure that your name and the course code/title are clearly indicated on all assignment submissions.
• Late Submissions:Extensions can be provided for a valid reason. Please notify the facilitator at least 24 hours in advance with your request, so that arrangements can be made.

PROJECT CHARTER WRITING GUIDE[1]

This writing guide provides critical background information for the project charter assignment. What follows are some general guidelines and then specific section-by-section guidance on how to approach the assignment. (You are to follow the writing guide.)

1. Title Page: You can have fun with your title page (illustrations and graphics), but at a minimum, the title page must have the following information on it:

• Your name (or the names of all members of your group),
• The course name,
• The project name (have fun and think up a name for your project!)
• The date submitted, and
• The following statement: All material prepared for this assignment was produced by the author(s), and material from a third party (such as the internet) has been cited and referenced.

1. Table of Contents: The Table of Contents must be generated using your word processor's built-in 'Table of Contents' generation feature (found within the [Reference] Tab of Microsoft Word). If you have not worked with the Table of Contents feature in the past, then this is a good chance to learn some of Microsoft Word's additional features.
2. Project Background: In this section you can provide relevant project-related information that would have been previously published. You can'makeup' examples of information that might have been published in the project business case.
3. Project Purpose (Goal): Provide a short, concise (one or two sentences) statement as to what the project's purpose and goal are.
4. Project Objectives:State two examples of objectives for your project.
5. Scope and Project Exclusions (Out-Of-Scope Work):
   • Briefly describe what is 'in-scope' for the project.
   • Identify three examples of work that is important to the success of this project, but will not be completed as part of this project. Identify how the work will be done.
6. High-Level Assumptions: Provide 3 examples of high-level project assumptions that would impact the project planning.
7. High-Level Constraints: Provide examples of 3 external constraints that would restrict the project's planning options. Also provide a very brief description of their impact. (Note: The project's budget and schedule would be considered internal constraints or managerial objectives and cannot be used in this section.)
8. Requirements are "conditions that are required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a contract". In this section you are to provide examples of requirements that describe your house from a high level (as a project sponsor might describe them). Essentially, give examples of how a customer might describe what features, style, functionality or elements they would like to have as part of their dream house (keep in mind your project scope, and restrict your requirements to only those that are relevant to the project's scope).
9. Deliverables: List five examples of deliverables that would result as part of fulfilling the project's stated requirements (see previous section).
10. Project Milestones: Using the following milestonetable format, list three examples of milestones that would be appropriate for a project of this nature.

Milestone Name	Milestone Description	Milestone Date

Of most importance to the milestone section is your supporting description of why the milestone candidate should be considered a milestone for this project and what impact the proposed milestone will have on the overall project planning process.

1. Project Stakeholders: Identify three project stakeholders who would be appropriate for a project of this nature. Consider the following types of information when describing your stakeholders:
   • Identify stakeholders by their title or role (not by names).
   • How do they contribute to the project?
   • What are their needs and expectations for this project?

Key to the stakeholder section is to consider what information the project manager would need to know about these stakeholders to be able to proceed with the planning of this project. It is important that you only provide examples of stakeholder information that would be useful and beneficial in the project planning stage.

1. Project Manager Responsibilities and Authority Level: In this section, you need to define the following:
   • Identify who the project manager will be for this project;
   • What the main responsibilities of the project manager are; and
   • What authority has been assigned to the project manager to carry out their responsibilities?
2. Known Problems, Anticipated Issues, and Potential Risks: Identify an example of each term (the terms do not all mean the same thing).Ensure that you clearly indicate which of your examples you consider to be problems, issues or risks - you will be evaluated on your understanding of these terms.
3. Payment Schedule (or high-level summary budget):Develop a spending framework for the project that conveys the project sponsor's funding priorities. Keep in mind that this is a high-level payment schedule, which is not to the same as the detailed cost allocation found in the project plan budget.

Your summary budget should be in table format and should convey how much the project's sponsor is willing to pay per deliverable and/or milestone achieved.

1. Document Approval Section: Create an approval section for the overall document that shows that the main stakeholders agree to the charter. This section should contain an appropriate approval statement and corresponding signature blocks. In this section you need to not only demonstrate an appropriate approval statement, but also demonstrate your knowledge of who needs to approve the project charter.
2. Bibliography: Provide proper citation of all open-source resources that you have used in preparing your assignments. You will most likely need to do some research to complete this assignment - research is greatly encouraged, but drawing information directly from third-party material is not. You should minimize the use of third-party material, and if you need to use it, then it is important that you cite it within your work. At a minimum, any section that is found to contain uncited third-party material will receive a grade of zero. The College can impose additional sanctions, if deemed to be warranted.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS:Use / demonstrate the following terms in this assignment:

ASSUMPTIONS: Project assumptions identify trends or conditions that (for planning purposes) are assumed to be true without proof. From a project charter perspective, assumptions define the framework under which the project plan is valid. If an assumption is found to be false, then part or all of the project charter might need to be revisited.

Business Case:The approved business case, or similar, is the business document most commonly used to create the project charter. The business case describes the necessary project information from a business perspective. It is commonly used by managers or executives (above the project level) to justify the need for the project. The business case typically contains information such as:

1. The business need for the project
2. The cost-benefit analysis (for example: buy vs. build)
3. A description for how the project will contribute to the organizations goals
4. Preliminary costs estimates and duration estimates

CONSTRAINTS: A constraint is defined as an externally imposed restriction that limits an organization or entity from moving toward or achieving its goal. Constraints place restrictions on the available implementation options.

DELIVERABLES:Adeliverable is any unique and verifiable product, result or capability to perform a service that is required to be produced to complete project process, phase, or fulfill a requirement".

EXCLUSION: Project out-of-scope items (or exclusions) usually refers to work that (while important to the organization's goals) will not be done as part of this particular project.

MILESTONE:

• A milestone is a significant point or event in a project.
• Milestones have zero duration (the are different from tasks).
• Milestones represent events that the PM and project team need to be focused on.
• Milestones can trigger follow-on activities.
• Milestones can be significant activities that the project team needs to work towards.

MILESTONE LIST: A milestone list identifies all project milestones and indicates whether the milestone is mandatory (such as those required by contract) or optional (such as those set by the project manager).

OBJECTIVE: Objectives are lower-level statements that describe the specific, tangible products and results that the project will deliver.

OUT OF SCOPE (see Exclusions)

PROJECT CHARTER:

• A project charter provides a high-level description of the project.
• A project charter is used to formally authorize the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
• A project charter is not an initial planning document, but is used to define the framework that a project will operate under. For example: it can specify: (1) the project's strategic objectives, goals, deliverables, etc.; (2) what resources will be allocated to the project; (3) significant client and project milestones; (4) overall durations; (5) payment schedules; (6) roles and responsibilities; (7) stakeholder identification; etc.
• A project charter is frequently (but not always) created by the project sponsor prior to the project manager and project team being brought onto the project.
• A project charter is similar to a Statement of Work but is not a legally binding document and is used mostly internally within an organization.

PURPOSE: The project goal describes the desired outcome while the project purpose summarizes (in common language) what the project will actually do.

REQUIREMENTS: Requirements specify "conditions or capabilities" that are required to be present in the project's output (product, service or result) in order to achieve the project's objectives.

REQUIREMENTS COLLECTION: Refers to a process by which project requirements are determined, documented and managed to ensure that the project objectives are met.

SCOPE(as in what is 'In-Scope' for this project): The sum of the products, services, and results to be provided by the project.

STAKEHOLDER:

• An individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceived itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio.
• Project charters normally only highlight project stakeholders that the project will be expected to consult with, inform, report to, or otherwise utilize in some fashion.

[1]NOTE: The template provided in this assignment must be followed.Most students can easily fulfill all learning requirements for this assignment in approximately 6-9 pages. (The page count does not include your cover page, Table of Contents and bibliography.)