TOPIC: Project Charter

Studying for the Pmp, I am taking the advice of putting what is learned into practice in actual projects.

The sponsor/customer is A big Commercial Mall that wants to remodel, because it hasn't done so in 10 years,It is owned by the individual store owners, and they, decided thru the management of the Mall to remodel.

The mall administrator, launched a bid. Another company hired me to make the budget for the bid. The company won, and asked me to join forces to do the actual work in the Mall. I will be appointed as project manager and partner for the project.

Regarding the project Charter, I have to create one, and it has to be signed by a person that is external to the project and that has the authority to do so.

If I do the project charter from the seller (general contractor point of view) the objectives are very different from the sponsor/customer point of view.

So in one sense it seems that I have to do It from the project manager point of view, and have the sponsor/customer sing it.

From the company that is hiring me as a project manager and joining forces It seems that I have to do it from the General contractor point of view, and have the CEO of the company, but in a sense, the CEO is not external to the project, will not be directly funding the project, as this will be done by the administration of the mall.

The Mall does not have any project methodology, did not provide SOW, they have no process asset, we have being negotiating after the bid was won for 10 months before signing a contract (still to be done) The company that is joining forces and hiring as the PM doesn't have project management culture either, they mostly do small jobs, and this one is a Multimilion Dollar one. Area in wich I have experience.

From which standpoint should I develop the project Charter?

Howard Marcalle

Hi Howard,

I understand that in this case the customer, performing organization and other partners are not used to following a well established project management methodology based on PMBOK. But I am sure being successful they may be following some sort of process or methodology even if it is not ideal. First find out more about how similar projects are handled by your company in the past if that is possible. That may provide more insights into this. Also talk to your manager or internal management to see if you can apply some of the best practices to the project to start with. I am sure every sensible person would like to have more control and predictability into their projects. Now coming to your project charter, I think you should take a lead on developing the document but with inputs from your customer (Mall) and your sponsor (within your organization). I think contract that you have with the Mall will provide a lot of inputs to this. Project charter is always written by the performing organization as your are considering this as a project from seller side. For Mall they are just doing a procurement part of their initiative. You can write the charter from seller point of view, but always remember the project objectives needs to cover your customer needs, expectations and constraints as they are the major key stakeholders here. Hope this helps.

Mani.

Howard,

Let me first of all say, that this situation is outside of the requirements for the PMP exam. You should not come across a scenario that is this complex on the exam. However, you may come across similar questions regarding who is supposed to sign the charter. So let's see if we can figure this one out according to the PMBOK Guide. Regarding the charter you wrote:

...it has to be signed by a person that is external to the project and that has the authority to do so.

But there is a much more important sentence about signing, and that is: "The project initiator or sponsor should be at a level that is
appropriate to funding the project." In other words, the person who pays signs the charter.

In my personal opinion this always means the "ultimate payee". So even if there are three levels of contracting and subcontracting between you and the ultimate person with the money, the charter should be written for them.

So my recommendation: Figure out who is ultimately paying for it and that's the perspective you may want to select.