The following hypothetical company scenario is used as the basis for completing the sample project management template documents.

"The XYZ Manufacturing Company is an established firm in the computer industry. They manufacture  systems across two divisions; the PC / Server Division and the Monitor / Display Division. They engineer their products from the ground up, purchase the necessary components, and assemble and test the final products in house. They have recently embarked on an internal manufacturing system upgrade. They have  purchased a software application from a local vendor, and are in the early phase of implementation."

The approach I'm using here is to show the sample Project Charter document on this web page.

NOTE: The Charter contains links to all the other project management templates, whose respective document will open in a separate window. Those documents are in PDF file format and you will require Adobe Reader to view them. This will allow you to see the full complement of completed project management template documents, all referencing data consistent with the hypothetical company scenario.

NB: The sample data used is not intended to represent a real project and all of its complexities. Rather, it  serves to illustrate how the various templates can be used to help successfully manage your project.

Project Charter

Prepared By:

Version Control

The Project Charter defines the scope, objectives, deliverables and overall approach for the work to be completed. It is a critical element for initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and monitoring the project. It is the absolute master document for the project and as such it should be the single point of reference on the project for goals and objectives, scope, organization, estimates, deliverables, and budget.

There are items within the Charter that are supported by additional project control documents. In these instances the Charter will name the documents involved and describe their purpose and use throughout the project life cycle. This serves to keep changes to the master document to a required minimum while providing a mechanism to monitor and control the key areas of the project on an ongoing basis.

The Project Charter also serves as a contract between the Project Team and the Project Sponsors, stating at a minimum:

·         Why are we doing this and what is the overall goal.

·         What are the assumptions and constraints going in.

·         When do we need to be finished.

·         What deliverables must be made to get there.

·         What things are not to be done.

·         When do the deliverables need to be completed and in what order.

·         Who is going to actually do the tasks and where.

·         What resources and money (budget) is needed.

·         What risks are there likely to be along the way.

·         How to keep things on target and monitor progress.

In the last budget process it was recognized that the legacy Manufacturing Information System needed to be upgraded as vendor support for the old system was to be discontinued within two years. In house staff cannot maintain the old system due to source code not being available. A modern manufacturing software application would provide added functionality and opportunities to reduce inventory levels and product delivery times.

Subsequently, an RFP was issued, a vendor selected and contracts completed to provide the new software. It is assumed the new application will operate satisfactorily on the XYZ hardware. This is a potentially high risk to the project and must be verified in the early project stage.

The new system will be initially implemented in the Display manufacturing facility. It is anticipated that will happen within the first 12 months. Once the system has proven itself and stabilized, then the main Server plant will be brought online within the following 6 months. This timeline must be met to ensure our operating systems are fully supported.

The cost is not to exceed $750,000. This includes the initial software application, custom code development, and consulting costs.

The Director of IT will be responsible for the implementation, and will hire an experienced contract Project Manager to guide the project. The VP Manufacturing is the Project Sponsor and must sign off on all major deliverables. The various company departments will contribute experienced staff resources to the project team for the duration of the project.

Goals and Objectives:

Project Deliverables:

NB: A Gantt Chart produced by a suitable project planning software application is essential to understanding all of the project deliverables and activities, their interrelationships, completion due dates, and progress status. Once the project plan details have been completed, the gantt chart will become an attachment to this document.

Deliverables Out of Scope:

• No new PCs or monitors will be installed at employee workstations.
• There will no Internet access to the new system during this implementation project.
• RFID technology will not be a part of the initial system implementation.

Project Estimated Costs by Milestone:

NB: labour costs include consulting and internal staff. Milestone 1 has high learning component.

Project Assumptions:

• The new software application will operate properly on XYZ’s hardware platform.
• Sufficient internal staff resources can be made available to the project team.
• An experienced Project Manager will be hired to run the project.
• Facilities and workstations will be made temporarily available for the project team
• The project can be implemented within the cost budget.
• Required software enhancements will be made to handle XYZ specific needs.

Project Constraints:

• The economy is bad – the cost budget cannot be exceeded.
• It may be difficult to free up the required internal staff when needed.
• No new temp hires are allowed with the exception of the PM.
• The timeline must be met to decommission legacy system before support stops.

Project Interdependencies:

List any other projects in process or planned that have a relationship to this project. Describe how those projects impact the implementation of this project.

Organizational Impacts:

The high level view of changes by organization can be listed in the following table.

It is recommended that the Project Change Management and Project Change Planning documents be referred to and used to address these concerns at a more detailed level.

NB: This section is essentially about Change Management. Projects almost always bring significant change to organizations and are therefore disruptive. People inherently dislike change and are sceptical towards those things that bring about the change. Those that aren’t directly involved with the project team are likely worried about their role and what might happen to them as the changes take place in the organization. It’s up to the project team to recognize this as a serious matter and plan the appropriate communications to ensure correct expectations.

Project Scope Change:

In spite of having done the very best up-front planning and definition of project requirements, inevitably someone will want to change the scope of the project. Scope “creep” impacts the project deliverables and has been the downfall of many a project.

It is necessary to strictly control project scope to avoid confusion, wrong expectations and the possibility of project failure. This is done by implementing a formal project scope change procedure. The Project Scope Change Request and Project Scope Change Request Log forms are designed to support the formal procedures. No changes are to be made to the approved project scope and deliverables without obtaining approval through the formal scope change management process.

The Project Scope Change Request form is divided into three sections to fully document input from the requestor, reviewer, and decision maker. It supports a cost / benefit type of impact analysis for every requested change. The use of this form is the only way to request and obtain a change to the project scope.

The Project Scope Change Request Log form is maintained by the Project Manager and provides an overview and status of each and every change requested. A history of all changes is maintained on this form.

Regularly scheduled, frequent reviews of all open change requests are to be done to ensure all requests are dealt with in an expeditious manner and to protect the integrity of the project plan. These review meetings are to be included in the Project Communications Plan.

Project Risk Management:

Effective project management is about identifying and managing risks to the project. The risks should address both people resources and other resource areas. The Project Charter specifies the Risk Management Plan including; activities, roles and responsibilities – samples are given below.

Individual risk items are tracked on the Project Risk Management Item Tracking document. The Project Manager is responsible for maintaining this document.

Risk Management Plan

Project Resource Planning:

The Project Resource Plan defines; the project organization chart, the staff resources required by skill set to complete the various project activities, and the non-people resources required to support the project team.

Project Organization Chart

The following organization chart shows the proposed project team structure.

Resource Requirements by Skill Set

Following are the estimates for project resources.

NB: A detailed resource plan by timeframe will be made available from the project planning software when the detailed level plan is completed.

Non-People Resources Required

Following is the list of desired items.

Project Communications Planning:

Effective communications are a vital part of successful project management. A communications plan is to be established at the very beginning of the project and communicated to the entire team. The plan describes all mandatory regular communications activities. These should include topics such as; reporting, meetings, notices and team building. This plan sets out the timing and responsibilities of essential items; for example, the Project Status Reports for the individual teams and the overall project.

The Project Team Communications Plan document is used to define and communicate the plan. The Project Manager is responsible for establishing and maintaining the plan.

Project Reporting – General Items:

An important part of successfully running a project is to specify up front the general tools and templates that are to be used throughout the project for meetings and reporting. This standardizes the documents to be used and facilitates a structured approach to setting up and maintaining centralized project documentation storage and retrieval. These and all other project documents are to be stored electronically in a centrally located and managed set of folders.

The following document templates are available to handle the key repetitive project tasks:

• Project Meeting – Agenda
• Project Meeting – Minutes
• Project Action items – Open
• Project Action Items – Closed
• Project Issue Management Form
• Project Issue Management Log
• Project Weekly Time Tracking – Employee
• Project Weekly Time Tracking – Summary
• Project Status Report

Project Wrap-Up:

The Project Wrap-Up Report is prepared by the Project Manager at the conclusion of the project. Prior to its preparation, an interview process is conducted with all of the main project participants to complete the Project Lessons Learned document. All of the major project activities are given a rating by the participants and an overall summary of all the responses is prepared. The Project Lessons Learned summary document becomes an important component of the project wrap-up. Also, a summary description of the project highlights and lowlights is provided for the major activities.

A listing of any outstanding tasks that should be followed up on post project is provided along with summary recommendations for future projects.

The main purpose of this report is to learn those things that went well, those things that could be done better, and apply that knowledge to subsequent projects.

Attachments: