Wait! Does Your WFC Upgrade Have a Project Charter?

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I'll spend the first hour sharpening the axe." ~ Abraham Lincoln

The complexity of UKG projects causes them to be highly fluid. With every new workflow variable you introduce, landscapes and timelines can shift, which makes a Project Charter foundational to the success of your implementation or upgrade. 

A Project Charter is also referred to as a Project Definition, a Project Plan, or Project Statement. By any name, it's simply a short statement that lays out the scope, objectives, and participants involved in a project.

A Project Charter specifically delegates roles and responsibilities, outlines project goals, and identifies critical stakeholders. It also confirms who the Project Manager is and defines their authority. 

Sounds like a reasonable project step, right? Not always. A Project Charter isn't always considered a common practice and often, tight deadlines can push a Project Charter's importance aside. 

A Living Project Guide

As a best practice in the world of project management, the Project Charter should be more than simply the document that formally authorizes the start and scope of a project. It should also be a living document that the project team can return to measure expectations, processes, and outcomes. 

The benefits of a comprehensive Project Charter cannot be overstated. This short, succinct project document is the key to developing stakeholder buy-in and identifying ambiguous business requirements—two top causes of project failure.

Ideally, the Project Charter is the center point of the project that all stakeholders agree on and look to for project scope, objectives, approach time frame, and deliverables.

A Project Charter Should Include:

1. A statement of the project's purpose, including impact.

2. Project objectives that are stated clearly in a way that can be measured.

3. Project description including the boundaries and relationship to other ongoing projects within the organization

4. Overview of significant implementation milestones, including high-level deadline requirements.

5. Preliminary budget

6. Stakeholder list, including the authority level of the project manager and sponsor.

In every piece of the Project Charter, quantifiable goals should be stated. The more specific the expectations, assumptions, and goals, the better the project team can assess the progress.

Manage Schedule Creep

With a Project Charter that outlines expectations, it's easy for project managers and sponsors to tame schedule creep (slowly postponing set deadlines). When new requirements are identified, the project team can instantly refer to the Project Charter's statement to measure against objectives. 

A few of the most potent, far-reaching benefits of a Project Charter are project accountability and goodwill that set the tone for future projects. Documenting an HRIS project of any kind can get sticky, but with a succinct governing document, the project team stays unified, stakeholders stay informed, and budgets stay on track.

Ready to upgrade? 

Improv is known for its creative approach and ability to solve complex UKG configurations. If your team is considering an implementation or upgrade of any kind—WFC, Dimensions, or WFR—consider tapping our 30+ years of expertise! Contact us today!

Need proof? Download this short case study and see what we did for TreeTop's HR and Payroll managers—it was a game-changer!