5 Creative Takes on a Clover to Launch Your Project
The purpose of this article is to present the components of a charter, how it benefits you and saves you time, money, effort, and gives you respect amongst those who are helping you, that you have thought through most of the pieces ahead of time. The Charter is covered under the INITIATE part of a project where you are doing Project Readiness.
The Charter is under the INITIATE part where you are doing Project Readiness
Always Start with a Charter
Always begin your project by building a charter.
Think of it as your personal checklist to ensure you’re making the best choice of cost, time, and resources, and help you incorporate anything else that should be considered.
It’s also helpful to have a document to circulate to stakeholders that clarifies expectations and identifies the success criteria for the project.
We will use what we call the MPM model, which is in the shape of a clover, to explain the five parts, starting with INITIATE.
The MPM model is in the shape of a clover
The MPM model divides the project management into five parts: INITIATE, LEAD, CONTROL, PLAN, TRANSITION
When we talk about the INITIATE portion of the project, which is the first of the five parts, we are talking about the process of building the project charter. Essentially you are getting ready for the project.
This process touches just about all of the items of the project at a high-level; and that is appropriate as the knowledge about most areas is not detailed at this stage.
If you want an overview of the INITIATE part of a project, there is a more comprehensive post here containing explanations and examples.
Putting together a Project Charter can evoke some major personal resistance: you might think “this is not for me”, or “it’s too much paperwork!”
Try to think of Initiate as a checklist where you can dump your assumptions and affirm your perspective for what you expect out of the project.
Practice Doing a Charter, No Matter How Small the Project
Any project you’re doing, whether it’s a multimillion-dollar endeavor at work or a small project at home that you’re hoping will improve your life, can benefit from a project charter.
Getting a 360-degree view of what you need and planning out your timelines and stakeholders will make sure that you know any relevant restrictions or requirements when you walk into the first dealership, and your friends helping will appreciate how organized you are.
In addition, producing a charter can be a great way of establishing what your goals and expectations are from the start, preventing a common project management issue called scope creep. Scope creep happens when the goalposts of your project shift as you work on it.
Let’s say you’re buying your car, and you decide that you want to add a trailer into the plan. All of a sudden there’s a whole extra piece to coordinate and consider – one that wasn’t in your initial budget or timeline.
When you have a document to refer to and give to people helping you out, even if it is just a one-pager, gives you a concrete way to hold yourself accountable and make sure that you’re being consistent with your original aims.
Use the MPM model to Guide Your Charter
The MPM model diagram contains a lot of information – far too much for one post.
Instead, we’re going to review the project charter components at a high level, by each of the five Parts (INITIATE, LEAD, CONTROL, PLAN, TRANSITION) and identify the segments applicable in each, and then the detailed Project items within each leaf segment (such as Roles, and Budget) will be explored in their own articles later on, so that you can get a solid understanding of what each does.
For now, we’ll go through each of the five parts, identify the segments in the diagram that are applicable and give a quick description to help you understand why each item is included.
We’ll also address the insights and value each of these parts can give you before you invest the time, money, and resources in the wonderful idea you have dreamed up, called a project.
Part: INITIATE
Segments: All
INITIATE covers high-level info about Project Items
INITIATE as a part of the model doesn’t belong to any single leaf, because you want to consider everything in the project when you are beginning to plan things out.
For this reason, it’s represented more as the space around the MPM model – it touches everything and is just as vital as any other piece.
INITIATE produces the project charter as a deliverable. That’s your tangible proof that you’ve been careful in considering the pieces that come together in your project, and that you’re being considerate of anyone involved.
Beyond that, any organization will likely require some kind of report or document before approving funding for a project expenditure or releasing an RFP (Request for Proposal) to market.
If your document is well-structured and professional, it’s way better than something you throw together off the top of your head.
Part / Leaf: LEAD
Segments: Motive and People
LEAD covers Motive and People
If LEAD as a section were mapped over to an org structure, it would be analogous to your HR and strategy departments.
This section is all about who’s involved and why you’re doing what you’re doing. How will you manage the people involved, and communicate with everyone consistently?
How are you going to handle change management, especially when there’s a big shift involved, with the potential to affect many staff?
Knowing why your project is important is crucial too – if you can’t communicate urgency or a beneficial outcome, nobody will want to fund your initiative or be involved.
Beyond that, if you don’t know why you’re doing the project, why would anyone else care about it?
Including these pieces in your project charter makes your case compelling and ensures that you look at the people aspect of it, not just the numbers and facts.
Part / Leaf: CONTROL
Segments: Things and Money
CONTROL covers Things and Money
Speaking of numbers and facts, CONTROL comes into play as a way of considering variables and costs in your project.
What deliverables you need to produce, like reports? How are you measuring quality of your deliverables? And what is in scope?
You’ll need to describe your objectives in this section, so that you can establish the outcomes you’re working towards and help your stakeholders get excited about the positive effect that this project will have on their lives.
This is also where money comes in—usually a major consideration in any initiative. What’s your budget? Do you have contingency plans if something costs more than you think it will? What about potential constraints? How will you evaluate project costs?
All of these considerations will make sure that your project moves smoothly, and you don’t run out of money partway through, which will be essential to getting everything done on-budget and on-time.
Part / Leaf: PLAN
Segments: Map and Timing
Plan covers Map and Timing
The final leaf on the MPM model looks at the waypoints along the route to finishing your project, how you’re traveling along the path, and the time requirements needed to reach each point.
What about your methodology? Have you thought about establishing a consistent process so that you don’t have to improvise with each business area you’re helping or each staff member you consult?
Do you want to have meetings every Tuesday, or is it every second Wednesday with your project team?
How many weeks do you think it will take to review that crucial working process that you need to know inside and out before you can design something new?
When do you want to start the project? What about finishing it? Is someone or some group; your “customer” expecting it by a particular date?
This part shows that you know the importance of having consistency with your processes, and you have some ideas about the logistics involved in your project.
It gets you to think about how your moving pieces fit together in a consolidated whole and will help you get a big-picture idea that you can share if stakeholders have questions or concerns.
Part: TRANSITION
Segments: All
TRANSITION covers Operations Readiness
The TRANSITION part of the project encapsulates the move to an operational state, where you’re doing upkeep and adjusting to the change after your project is done.
Thinking about this out before your project finishes is important, because it helps you make sure that you know what you’ll need to do to help the change stick and makes sure you’re aware of what things will look like afterwards.
Winding down your staff commitments, transitioning responsibilities from contractors to full-time staff, figuring out how you’ll coordinate communications between departments so that everyone knows what they need to move forwards – all of these are important to make sure that your shift from a project environment with dedicated resources to a steady operational state with your regular staff goes smoothly.
Including these as considerations in your charter will help you understand your project’s pacing and the scale of change management that you want to incorporate in the project vs what can be incrementally implemented after the projects done.
Summary
A Charter is essential to help you start your project off on the right foot. Doing a charter can save you time, money, effort, even before you get started, and gives you respect amongst those who are helping you, that you have thought through most of the pieces ahead of time
Use our MPM model visualization model, with its components organized around the parts of leading the project and people, controlling the outcomes and costs, and setting up the steps and timing for the project implementation, to help you structure your charter and make sure you have thought through everything; before you get started.
Action Steps / Apply This Knowledge
- Go through the parts of the model and the segments in the MPM model leaves and fill out one or two sentences for each for your current project and see if any new options, ideas or concerns surface.
- If you need to speak with your stakeholders about some of the things that have come up, send them a quick email with what you understand things to be, just as a confirmation, to help clarify expectations.
Learn More
Business evolves through change initiatives otherwise known as projects. The key to managing these change initiatives so you have more time, and less stress is to use simple strategies and tools.
Have fun with some short quizzes on leading, controlling, and planning projects: Three quizzes on leading, controlling, and planning projects
Check out the Learning Hub, organized by PM topic or Main idea, for other Articles with Actionable Steps: https://simplepmstrategies.com/learning-hub-index
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