Yesterday we talked about building a strategy. If you are a tech exec, you need to be able to develop and understand what’s in your strategy, even if you have a team building it for you. Key to any project, including your strategy build, is the Charter.
The Charter is made up of the following:
- Objectives: purpose of the project and identification of background work already completed that could contribute to it.
- Critical Success Factors: document the rules of engagement and the make-or-break conditions for a successful outcome of the strategy.
- Scope: clarify and limit activities and coverage of the strategy. Scoping should focus on outlining deliverables and process and leveraging available data and capabilities to refine approach.
- Governance: define the approach to running the planning process, including people and team structure. Determine with whom and how collaboration takes place in order to help facilitate the planning exercise.
- Methodology: define and document the framework to guide the project. Outline process that’s to be used to complete the effort successfully (steps outlined below)
- Deliverables: describe the expected deliverables and link to methodology/ process above.
- Timeline: document timeline and outline dependencies and durations.
The charter helps you keep expectations under check. But it’s a great document to build together with all stakeholders.
As a team, coming up with the vision for the project just helps lead to a successful outcome.