Project Charters

Project charters is a document created to formalize the project.

Scope Statement

Document created typically after a project charter that is used to confirm the project scope. Includes: justification, description, summary of deliverables, and statement of what project success is.

Work Breakdown Structure

A WBS is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project. A Work Breakdown Structure is important because it provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules.

WBS Principles:

• A unit of work should only appear once in the WBS.

• The work content of a WBS item is the sum of the WBS items below it.

• A WBS item is the responsibility of only one person, even though many people may work on it.

• The WBS must be consistent with the way work is actually performed; it should be created for the project team first and foremost.

• Project team members should be involved in creating the WBS.

• Each WBS item must be documented to ensure scope of work.

• The WBS must be flexible while properly maintaining control of the work content.

It very is difficult to create a good scope statement and WBS and even more difficult to verify project scope and minimize scope changes. Many IT projects suffer from scope creep and poor scope verification.