Once a concept for a project has been discussed, STG formalizes the project in a project charter typically one page in length. These details are only laid out at a high level. The goal of the project charter is to make sure that there is a common understanding/agreement about the project, without delving too deeply into the details.
Project charters should be considered for work that is anticipated to require more than approximately one month and involve more than two people.
Project charters should be socialized as broadly as possible. This should necessarily include all identified stakeholders, the Library management team, and the STG team. It might also include other members of the Library and the University.
Before work can proceed, the charter must be approved by one or more associate university librarians (AULs) appropriate to the nature of the project.
The sections of a typical project charter are:
- objectives - Description of the functional objectives of the project
- requirements/scope - List of project outputs/outcomes
- out of scope - Pertinent items which are explicitly not in scope
- schedule - High level timeline of major phases of the project
- team - project team members and their roles with respect to the project
- approval authority - names of AUL approvers
The charter is flexible -- add/remove additional sections as appropriate.
If a major change is required to the project, a charter addendum should be considered. Depending on the nature of the change, it may be appropriate to seek re-approval from the AUL approvers.
Approved charters should be posted to the STG section of the Library website.