Project Management

Create a project Charter for an imaginary Education Resource Centre (ERC) in a community of your choice.

An imaginary Education Resource Centre (ERC) in a community of your choice is considering expanding its computer services section. As part of the expansion, 20 new desktop computers will be installed and should be operational within four (4) months of approval. As the project team leader, it is your responsibility to create a Charter for this project as a way of making the business case for the project and securing the commitment of the Board of Directors, centre administrators and other stakeholders. The main project sponsor (Manager of Computer Services) has asked you to prepare the project Charter. The Manager wants you to identify the benefits of the project and prepare a business case that provides a justification for undertaking the project, costs of doing the project, and more importantly, risks from not doing the project. In addition, the Manager has asked that you provide justifications for the allocation of resources including staff requirement and/or costs.

To get you started, the Manager indicated to you that the project objective is to install twenty (20) desktop computers at the cost of $40,000 to support the library and educational needs of students and community members during and after school hours. Upon completion, the project is expected to benefit the community through improved service and computer skills.

You know from the course content and readings in Chapter 4 and other chapters that there is not a single prescribed format for a project Charter, but the general rule is that it is a high-level documentconcise and aimed at senior management, not technical staff. At a minimum, the Charter should include the following sections:

• Name of project: The title of the project

• Project scope: Overall objectives and decision to install twenty (20) desktop computers

• Business case and benefits: A concise identification of benefits of the project to students and community members. There is no need to provide a lot of detail but use this section to make a business case for the justification of allocation of resources (i.e., time, money, staff) to the project
• Project overview: Discuss the role of sponsor, project objectives, major works to be done and how the installations will be carried out (insourced vs. outsourced)
• Project objectives: Use this section to discuss the expectations of the project sponsor and stakeholders
• Constraints associated with the project: Mention the time constraint and any other requirements the project must meet
• Anticipated timing and schedule: Provide a brief summary of the timing (dates) for key performance milestones and project completion. A detailed task schedule for the project is not required
• Project stakeholders and organization: Identify the project sponsor, project team members, project client, top management, other groups within the organization that will be affected by the project, and any external stakeholders who have interest in the project
• Project manager responsibilities: Include staffing, budget, status update, planning/tracking , and project risk assessment and mitigation
• Authority: As the project manager, you will have authority to identify necessary tasks and resources needed to execute the project. When resource conflicts occur, the project sponsor (the ERC Manager) and board will resolve the issue
• Approvals: Identify key personnel from the Education Resource Centre that are formally committed and willing to allocate resources to the project. This will include the Manager and board members.