KICK-OFF PROCESS

The first step is to develop a charter. Before you can expend resources on the project, you need to have the authority to do such. The charter gives you the authority to expend your organization’s resources. Typically, the person who is financially obligating the required resources will provide the charter. This person is known as the sponsor. In this scenario, your boss is the sponsor.

Hopefully, your sponsor through the charter provides enough information so that you know what direction to head as
well as the desired end state. It is possible that your sponsor won’t be able to provide the needed detail. In this case, the first part of the project may be to develop the charter. Also, the charter should be able to last the entire project; therefore, if the charter changes, one may have to consider terminating that project and
beginning another.

Here are some key questions that the charter should answer:

Why are we doing this project? In any leadership situation, one of the most important issues that the leader must understand and be able to convey is, why are we doing this? It is important to determine the legitimacy and importance of the project before you begin. Running projects is very challenging and can become very frustrating. But understanding the “why” behind the project helps you and the team to stay focused on the big picture during the project.