Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Making the Rules  Every project is different. Different schedules, different products, and different people are involved.
 On any given project, the stakeholders may have differing ideas about what the project is about.
 Your job, as project manager, is to make sure that everyone involved understands the project and agrees on what success will look like.
 Skilled managers need to do clarify the rules of the game for a new project .
 There are four methods to ensure that everyone understands, and agrees to the project rules.
 The first, project charter, is an announcement that the project exists. The following three, the statement of work, the responsibility matrix, and the communication plan are developed concurrently and constitute the actual written documents containing the project rules.

Project Charter:
 A project charter announces that a new project has begun. The purpose of the charter is to demonstrate management support for the project and the project manager.
 It is a one-time announcement.
 As an announcement, it can take the form of an e-mail or a physical, signed document.
 It contains the name and purpose of the project, the project manager’s name, and a statement of support from the issuer.
 The charter is sent to everyone who may be associated with the project.
 The sponsor is the best person to sign the charter, because he or she is the one who will be actively supporting the charter.

Statement of Work:
 It lists the goals, constraints, and the success criteria – the rules of the game.
 The statement of work, once written, is then subject to negotiation and modification by the various stakeholders.
 Once they formally agree to its content, it becomes the rules for the project.
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