A charter of commitment
This is something I knocked up recently to help put a sluggish project back on track — hope this helps someone somewhere do something better :)
Charter of commitment for the project
What we will manage and how
We create the best possible conditions for delivery by making the project environment:
· Predictable — we reduce uncertainty by using a common approach, language, documents, costing, release schedule, meetings, and by making progress visible to all, and
· Predicting — we survey the future environment by learning lessons, bench marking data, highlighting trends, patterns and themes, considering risks and issues, measuring success, recording estimates, and tracking resources
We strive for a near predictable environment with much less predicting.
What we will record, track and analyse, and why
We use Jira, weekly catch-up meetings, conversions and the progress report to give the internal team, the external team and stakeholders visibility.
The above methods show we are delivering value; we’re meeting the business need; that the team is happy; where we are and are going; we’re managing scope and work in progress effectively; we’re managing change and prioritising proficiently; we’re making decisions and removing obstacles; who is working on what and for how long; we’re mitigating risk, handling issues and fixing bugs; and, we’re learning our lessons.
Most importantly, we understand that identifying and reporting real progress/intelligence removes uncertainty and breeds trust.
What does this mean in practice?
· We all use the right channels to communicate with each other
· We talk rather than message, we message rather than email, we email rather than meet, and we only meet when we need to make a decision or we need to collaborate. The one exception here is our weekly progress meeting
· We all attend the weekly progress meeting, or send someone in our place, so we all have the most up-to-date project intel and, most importantly, so we have continuous feedback in the form of a product demo
· We are accountable for the actions we are assigned and it is our responsibility to update the wider team on progress
· We all feed into the weekly progress report rather than wait to be asked for information. Keeping this report current is key to the success of the project
· We all read the progress report. It usually has all the answers
· We work as one team. We all support each other in the delivery of the website/products. There’s no ‘I’, just ‘we’, and we avoid blame like the plague
· We work hard to make sure that none of us become a bottleneck to delivery. We filter problems, delegate what we can and prioritise what remains
· We focus on outcomes. We work to a set of outcomes with associated outputs that need to happen to achieve each outcome. This way we focus bigger picture of what we need to achieve rather than working on tasks in isolation.
Anything I’ve missed? Anything you’d add? Did you try something else and it worked? Share away :)
