Importance of project charter in industrial projects

What is Project Charter? 

The project charter is a document that provides basic information about a project. The industrial design project consultants prepare this with the client in the pre-design stage. The project charter is the next step after approval of the business case.

The project charter provides clarity about the following: 

1. It justifies the existence of the project.
2. It gives the core requirements of the project
3. The project charter gives guidelines for policy directions
4. It gives a high-level scope, objectives
5. It provides for roles and responsibilities
6. It has guidelines on the schedule of the project.
7. It provides the organizational structure of the project. 
8. It helps in evaluating risks and planning accordingly. 

The project charter is a critical document for all those involved in the project, especially the project team from the client's side, the industrial design consultants, Project management consultants. 

Who all participate in the preparation of the project charter?

Since it is a critical document, industrial design consultants involve the senior management, PMC, and the design consultants' project coordinator. The list of participants depends on the project size. The involvement of participants ensures that there are minimal changes as the project evolves. Any subsequent change needs the approval of all participants. 

Objectives :

1. To create a project vision- establish goals, develop objectives, identify Critical Success Factors, and identify Project Scope.
2. To establish a project system: identify project participants, analyze the external and internal Customers, find the stakeholders for the project, establish Resources, their Roles and Responsibilities, create an organizational Structure, finalize Control Policies and control Authority, identify Facilities and Resources required, and create a communication system. 
3. To establish an Approach to Implementation: create a Project budget for the Industrial design project, establish a Financial Authority, prepare an Implementation Plan, enact Major Project Milestones, and establish dependencies.
4. Evaluate Risks and Suggest Mitigation Plans: Identify the Constraints, prepare a list of assumptions, and finally, prepare Risk Mitigation Plans.

The project charter is a critical functional document for planning industrial design projects. Industrial design consultants use it as a reference for the project.