During the starting of a project, a Project Charter can be an important artefact. After top management determineswhich project/s to pursue, it is important to then notify the organisation of the project/s about to commence. TheProject Charter can be used to formally recognize/authorise the project, provide a summary of the details of theproject and nominate/identify the project manager. This artefact can clearly indicate to the project team and allstakeholders, the project objectives, scope and vision and help to demonstrate the broad requirements andexpectations of the project.

Ina project managed using traditional (predictive/planned) project managementmethodologies, the Charter would bea document of just a few pages (around 3), formally outlining the key objectives, schedule and stakeholders. In aproject managed using more adaptive or agile methodologies, the document would be of a similar size, butperhaps less prescriptive but with greater breadth and would reflect the different approach used. It would also bedisplayed in the project team room. Hybrid forms that borrow from the traditional and agile can also exist.You can obtain more information about a Project Charter from chapters 3 and 4 of the course text – Schwalbe, K.(2016).

Information Technology Project Management (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.Keep all of the above in mind as you read the following case study.

Case Study: Soliloquy Publishing Ltd. – Streaming Media Player System

You work for Soliloquy Publishing Ltd., a publishing house specialising in the promotion and publishing (hardcopyand electronic) of authors. Originally the company specialised in drama only content and inparticular those withhigh dialogue content presented in soliloquies1. The company has expandedintomany other forms of publicationssince then including fiction and non-fiction offerings. The company now operates in all Australian states andterritories and has a staff of over 50 people. It has recently reviewed its business objectives, corporate andmanagement structure as well as its operational procedures. It has resulted in Soliloquy implementing newpractices and a mission statement to help direct and manage future growth. Its new mission statement is “dialogueand prose, poetry and facts, these are the matters on which Soliloquy acts” and Soliloquy has a dream to bethought of as the first stop location for sophisticated web-based arts products.

 

Its CEO, Tristan Bard sees great potential growth in the area of interactive promotion of their product. As a result ofa review by Tristan, a number of projects were proposed and a business case constructed for each. The projectwith the most promising opportunities and that most closely aligned project with the company’s goals andobjectives – grow revenues and profits by 5% year on year for the next five years, improve visibility (increasedsight visits by 50% after two years) and increase financial returns (exceed ROI of 10% after delivery of project) -proved to be the Streaming Media Player System (SMPS). A SMPS would provide an opportunity for the company
to replace their existing web-based static content delivery and open up new opportunities for promoting interactivecontent, loyalty schemes and repeat subscriber activity. In order for the SMPS to be a success, it needs supportfrom all sections of the corporation, from literary agents, industry associations and from existing subscriptioncustomers. Its development also needs to have input from content delivery and advertising consultants.

The SMPS as proposed will allow Soliloquy to provide streaming media content on their website and create a clientapplication that will be available for subscribers. These will provide various functions including “Read on-line”functionality, purchase of product, listening to excerpts read by actors, movie excerpts, a reading in conversationoption, loyalty club and an interactive book club. The facilities required to support this are expected to be a mediadatabase (a redesign of the company’s existing database is required), interactive web-based media player and aclient based media player with configuration, application and e-commerce functionality. The interactive web-based
media player is expected to allow promotion of product and options, selection of excerpts of products in audio andvideo form and a reading in conversation option as well as purchasing ability. The client based media player will allow the full streaming of read on line, audio books, movies, reading in conversation, loyalty club offerings andmanagement, interactive book club and purchasing ability. The client basedmedia player will only be for subscribers.

The business case identified the budget at $700,000 with potential payback within 2 years of completion. Thisincludes project manager costs (part time), developer costs – six developers are expected to be hired – charges fora content consultant and an advertising consultant, advertising, licencing and equipment – hardware and softwarefor developers. There is no planned upgrade to existing hardware as part of this project since there is expected tobe spare capacity in the company’s existing infrastructure. The estimated time frame for completion of the project
s six months. Soliloquy realizes there are major risks associated with this project including lack of client interestand it hopes that the project manager will be able to identify the appropriate stakeholders and address the risksinvolved. If the project can meet the above objectives and more importantly do this with a payback within two yearsof completion it will be deemed to have been a success.

You have been appointed as Project Manager to manage this project. A project steering committee has beenformed consisting of Tristan, who is the main promoter and supporter, as well as Elijah.Z. Money, the ChiefFinancial Officer (CFO), Ignatius T. Shoppe, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and yourself. You have alreadybeen approached by Elijah about the costings and he is worried about the acceptance/transfer of risks associatedwith the project. Additionally, you have read the local industry newspaper, The Scribe and have noted a number ofconcerning letter and articles by individuals as well as those by the Authors Protection Guild (APG) and ActorsEquity (AE). Some fellow employees have contacted you about their reservations about the system. You ponder all this and have commenced identifying the stakeholders and preparing a stakeholder management strategy and youwill use this information and the detail above to press ahead and finalise the ProjectCharter…

Assessable Tasks/Requirements

You are required to create a Project Charter for the case study provided: Soliloquy Publishing Ltd. – Streaming Media Player System. The project will be managed using the Agile SCRUM PM methodology. This is amethodology that, amongst other things, concentrates on sprints of work. The case study should provide you withsufficient information akin to a Business Case to allow you to create a Project Charter for the project. A template has been provided from your text that would be a template used when following a predictive/planned projectmanagement methodology. You need to modify this to reflect the different approach under an Agile SCRUM PMmethodology and present what might be calledahybrid Project Charter. One of the principles to keep in mind isthat under an Agile SCRUM approach you should have an idea of the different way you schedule work and what isexpected at the end of each sprint cycle – a deliverable or potentially deliverable product. You might also considerthat Agile SCRUM is not as document rich as predictive/planned methodologies, so it might be useful to state a fewmore things in your project charter since it may be the only place you put a visible and succinct boundary aroundand encapsulate what is being done in the project.

While preparing the Project Charter, you need to clearly identify both organisation and project components andtheir interrelationships. You need to think about:
1. the vision (why do this project? – i.e. does it align with the company vision?);
2.the mission (once again is there some relationship between this project and the mission of the
organisation?),
3.what are the organisation’s goals and objectives (the quantified satisfaction of these goals); and
4.what is the project scope and what are its objectives and success criteria (may be a general statement butmight also include some reference to satisfying the objectives).

You may also need to:
1.identify other stakeholders, in consultation with the sponsor;predict high level costs involved in the project;
2.hire a team for the duration of the project; and
3.devise a high level plan for the number of Sprints involved in the project and the objective for each Sprint Cycle.

You may need to make other necessary assumptions in preparing the Charter but make sure these are clearly stated.

(You may be creative with your assumptions to ensure that your submission is unique).The Project Charter will be displayed on the wall in the project team room for the duration of the project and may
include information such as:

1. Project title, project authorization date, start date and finish date
2.Project manager’s name and contact details
3. Description of vision, mission and goals/objectives for the organisation
4. Project scope/objectives, assumptions and constraints
5. Success criteria for the project
6.Summary budget
7. Summary schedule
       Start and end dates for each sprint
       Objectives, deliverables and milestones for each sprint
8.Summary of the project management methodology
9. Governance
10. Roles and responsibilities
11.Sign-off section for all stakeholders