Project Management in Global Health

Project Charter/Concept Note Transcript

Lecturer: Chikafuna Banda, MPH, PhD Fellow UNZA

As I discussed in the last lecture, the conceptual framework gives you a big-picture understanding of the
problem and underlying causes that lead to or contribute to a health problem the project is addressing.
As I mentioned before, it will help you, as the project manager, determine what aspects of the
framework will be addressed to achieve the desired outcome or outcomes. The process of designing
frameworks also helps to clarify many of the concepts and assumptions underlying basic project
activities. Drawing from the conceptual framework, you can develop a project charter or concept paper,
which I will discuss in this lecture. These two terms are often used inter-changeably – for the purpose of
this lecture, I will use the term project charter.

A project charter is a document that provides a high-level description of the project. A good project
charter provides a concise statement of purpose, including the goal and objectives of the project. The
project charter can serve multiple purposes:

• It serves as a reference document for the team and/or organization.

• It can be used to authorize the start of the project.
• It provides a shared understanding of the project for team members, for funders, and for
stakeholders.
• It serves as a proof of concept and can be used to get buy-in from sponsors or stakeholders.
• It can be used to pitch a new idea to potential sponsors or stakeholders.

Project charters should describe the essence of the project without the level of detail that is required in
a project plan. The content of the project charter can vary across different organizations, but typically
should contain some key components.

Let’s take a moment to review these key components that project charters should include.

The project charter should state the project’s goals, which is a broad statement that describe what the
project will accomplish. This is followed by the project objectives that describe how the goal will be
achieved. Objectives are specific statements that support the achievement of your goal. I talk about how
to write strong project goals and objectives in the next lecture.

Project charters also typically include a statement of the need or a brief description of the problem the
project will address. This is called the problem statement. To write a good problem statement you
should concisely describe the situation that needs to be changed and who or what is affected. The
problem statement should also quantify the problem, if possible.

For example, how many people are affected? It should provide some context for why the problem exists
and what the consequences are.
The problem statement from the Tanzania task-sharing project charter starts with a statement on the
importance of task sharing to meet HIV care and treatment goals. This is followed by the problem the
project will address; that is, challenges with the implementation and roll out of the policy at the facility
level and its subsequent effect on reaching targets.

The project deliverables are another important component of the charter or concept paper.
Deliverables refer to a list of the outcomes or outputs of the project, or it can refer to products that the
project will deliver. For example, a training curriculum is a “product” that would be considered a
deliverable. Deliverables are linked to the proposed project activities, which is another component of
your project charter. The proposed activities can be illustrative and should only include major activities
of the project.

Finally, a project charter includes a project schedule and project budget. Again, as with the project
activities, the timeline and the budget are not meant to include budget details or a detailed timeline.
That level of detail will be described in your project plan. If we look at the

Ukrainian TrainSMART concept paper, the schedule is January through September and the budget
included is a cumulative amount.

Some project charters include a description of roles and responsibilities and project assumptions and
risks. Again, for both, there is no need to go into detail; you can include a preliminary list of the roles
and skills required to perform the necessary work and the major assumptions or risks. The project plan
will provide greater detail on the roles and responsibilities. The project assumptions and risks are
generally detailed in the scope statement, which will be covered in a later lecture.

A quick tip on determining project risks: In order to agree on what constitutes a project risk, the project
manager, together with the rest of the team, should define the project “tolerances” for your project.
Project tolerance refers to how much variation from the objectives of the project charter a project can
tolerate. It articulates the degree to which a project can move forward without having the project
manager seek approval from (or consult with) the funder or the sponsor or the executive team of the
organization.

Typically, there are three types of project tolerances:

Schedule tolerances for example how long can the project be behind schedule without raising concern?

A second project tolerance is cost tolerance. How much can a project go over budget and still be
tolerated by the organization, client and/or funder?

And lastly, scope tolerance. How much scope change or revision can the organization, the client, and/or
funder tolerate?

The project charter can be shared with key stakeholders, including funders, other implementing
agencies, ministry counterparts to ensure that your organization and others have a shared
understanding of the project parameters. In some organizations, the project charter or concept note is
signed off by the executive team or supervisor of the project team. A project charter or concept paper is
a living document and can be adapted and revised to reflect changes in project scope or budget.

So, in summary, a project charter or concept note draws from the conceptual framework and serves as
the project manager’s tool for documenting a high level description of the project
(goals/objectives/activities/risks). It serves as a tool to ensure a shared understanding of the project
parameters and commitment and support from key stakeholders, including donors, other implementing
partners, and decision-makers internal to your organization. Not all projects need or want a project
charter or concept paper. It is up to you as a project manager to determine if it would be helpful based
on its utility