Build a Project Charter
Assignment Objective
As reviewed in week 1, for your final project (due in week 8), you will be tasked to build an operational plan. You will complete sections of this project throughout the course. The development of a project charter is the first part of laying the ground work for your final paper. Remember, this charter is lay out the project but not solve the problem. Your research in the coming weeks will help you find the solution.
Assignment Resources
Review Chapter 6 in your textbook(Exhibit 6.6 shows a charter example), in addition, review the additional resources provided in the Week 2 Module to prepare for this assignment. Please see the links below for a project charter example.
· The Multispecialty Clinic Project Charter Example
Paper Requirements
· Lay out paper as a project charter using the attached template:
· APA formatting in regards to title page, formatting and references (if used)
Additional Guidance
Things to consider when building the charter:
Team Structure and Authority
It is important to have the right team members that will help move the project forward. There will need to be accountability and documentation of roles and responsibilities. Like anything, everybody has to do their part to complete the task at hand. Unfortunately, one under performer can derail your whole project. In order to ensure everybody understands the scope, having a project charter is key, you will lay out ground rules, expectations and then all the details surrounding the project. This is the time you will also lay out the time commitment, as it relates to meeting times and work that will need to be completed. Having deadlines is important, sticking to them is even more important.
We are very good at putting together robust documents with great ideas, but forget to assign responsible parties and deadlines for deliverables. Without these items, the plan is nothing but words on a piece of paper.
Project management is a key tool that is used to enhance operations, as it helps you review processes and find the way to be effective and efficient with the resources you have, and helps you find ways to be innovative to re-engineer your work.
View Rubric
|
Project Charter Rubric |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Project Charter Rubric |
||
|
Criteria |
Ratings |
Pts |
|
Content and Focus view longer description |
30 pts Exceptional Student addresses all items of the assignment. Exceptionally clear, focused, and engaging operational problem. All the elements of the project charter are included in the assignment. Charter is labeled and clear to follow. 15 pts Moderate Student addresses most of items of the assignment. Semi-clear operational problem which maintains a focus from beginning to end. Specific supporting details are present. Charter is labeled and somewhat clear to follow 0 pts Student fails to address most items of the assignment. Operational problem not defined. Inadequate or missing supporting details. |
/ 30 pts |
|
Formatting and APA Requirements view longer description |
10 pts Work represents an example for others in respect to assignment format. Follows APA guidelines for formatting and citations when respected sources are used to support ideas. 8 pts Work follows the appropriate format of the assignment. Follows APA guidelines for formatting and citations with very few exceptions. 6 pts Work attempts to follow the appropriate format of the assignment. Inconsistent use of APA formatting and citation guidelines when respected sources are used to support ideas. 5 pts Work does not follow the appropriate format of the assignment. No cited sources are used to support ideas, little or no parenthetical documentation. |
/ 10 pts |
|
Writing Style view longer description |
10 pts Written in audience-appropriate language (avoids inappropriate language completely). Elaborate and colorful language. Written in student’s own words with direct quotes supporting student’s ideas. Superior editing: rare spelling and mechanical errors, correct usage and grammar. 8 pts Majority of language is appropriate for the intended audience and appropriate to the topic. Majority of assignment reflects student’s own ideas with direct quotes supporting student’s ideas. Careful editing: very few spelling and mechanical errors, correct usage and grammar. 6 pts Some use of audience-appropriate language recognized; inappropriate language is dominant. Most language is appropriate to topic. Able to get vague idea of message. Some evidence of editing: spelling and grammatical errors present. 5 pts Paper frequently uses language not suitable for the intended audience. Language is not appropriate to topic. Message is unclear. Majority of paper is plagiarized. Poor editing: spelling and grammatical errors make it difficult to read. |
/ 10 pts |
Project Selection and the Charter
Project Selection
How do you decide what projects you want to invest your capital on – human and financial?
The leadership team must decide what their focus of the year will be and which of these require a project to complete. Referring back to your balanced scorecard will be key in making these decisions. This will help keep you focused as it is easy to get wrapped up in the large amount of work that needs to be addressed. By keeping your balanced scorecard focused, you will be able to easily identify what projects need to be selected.
The leadership team will need to lay out all the potential projects, assign a priority to each one, and define a timeline. Once that has been established, they need to identify the strategic alignment, financial impact, quality/productivity impact, customers/patients impact, staff availability and training and probability of success of each project. Once you assign points to each one of these categories, it will help you prioritize the projects.
Project Charter
Once you have identified your projects, you will need to pull together the key stakeholders. Begin by identifying the executive and physician stakeholders, and then the core team. The charter sets the groundwork, reviews the ground rules, the objective and goal of the project, timeline, and activities that need to be completed.
There are four key categories of a charter: (Input sample charter)
1. Time
2. Cost
3. Scope
4. Performance
How do you identify your stakeholders?
These are those that are directly impacted by the project. Who is held accountable for the project? Who will be part of the decision making process? Who will own action items?
These are the questions that need to be asked as you build your project team. You will first and foremost need an executive and possibly a physician champion (depending on the kind of project and how clinical it may be). Your department has decided to look at ways to improve patient access. Who should be part of this team? Medical director? Director? Manager? All of these individuals have direct ties to the work being done and should be part of the team. Where your executive champions may not be available for every meeting, they need to sponsor your project, advocate for the work being done, and help with the tough decisions or situations that may come down the pike.
Feasibility Analysis
As you develop the charter, it is important to measure the feasibility of the project. What is realistic and will drive change? If you propose building a new facility, do you have executive support for this? Or are you going to look at adding a scheduling department to streamline the work to help improve access by taking non-clinical work out of clinical space? Which one of these approaches is more feasible?
The Elements of the Project Charter
As you work through all of these fine points, you will begin to build your ‘Project Charter’. As stated previously, there are four areas you need to cover in the charter, this document will also serve as your executive summary. When you need to re-focus and ensure you are staying on track, this document will help you.
1. Project mission statement
2. Project purpose or justification and connection to strategic goals (that balanced scorecard creeps in again)
3. High-level requirements that satisfy customers, sponsors and other stakeholders
4. Assigned project manager and authority level
5. Summary milestones
6. Stakeholder influences
7. Functional organizations and their expected level of participation
8. Organizational, environmental, and external assumptions and constraints
9. Financial business case, budget, and return on investment
10. Project sponsor with approval signature
Going back to our example of improving patient access. You have an outpatient Multispecialty Clinic that has long wait times for new patients to get in. You don’t have a clear scheduling template that helps guide your teams to schedule appointments and the intent of the service line is foggy, meaning you are seeing some continuity patients which takes away from the “specialist” intent. How do you address this?
Review the The Multispecialty Clinic Project Charter Example >>