Project Documentation

The Project Charter is the initiation document for any proposal/project. The information in the charter should clearly articulate the scope of the project, as well as provide any associated information that should be considered when defining the requirements and potential timeline for the project. Project charters for TR work are to be submitted to the appropriate TR Director once prioritized by the user's department/division for entry into EPM/PWA as a “proposal.”

The Work Details Worksheet is a brainstorming tool and guide for the project teams to organize the high-level estimate and requirements of the project in preparation for entering the information in the Work Details screen in EPM.

The Requirements document is used to describe the requirements of the project in sufficient detail to satisfy the project goals and desired results. Initially, high level requirements should be identified when defining the proposal.  Once the proposal becomes an “active project,” the requirements should be expanded to the detail needed to produce the desired project results.  Other types of “requirements documentation” may be used in addition to, or in place of, the template. Requirements should be in enough detail that any necessary test plans and testing can be created.

The Activity Diagram is used to give a visual representation of the activities (process flow) of the business process being addressed by the project.  It should show the activities within the functional areas and their relationships as they relate to this proposal or project.  The activity diagram supplements the requirements documentation to assist in understanding the business problem being resolved.  Note: it does not describe the project steps to be taken to produce the solution.

A Communication Plan is developed to describe what information should be communicated, and to whom, as well as how and when the communications will occur. Initially, a determination should be made regarding which Stakeholders should receive communications and what type of communications they should receive.  Projects may be comprised of many different groups of Stakeholders (e.g., Executives, Sponsors, customers, developers).  Each of the Stakeholders may have unique requirements for information relating to the project, including progress, issues, and change (both business changes as well as project changes).  Stakeholder perception of project success is largely influenced by the quality of the project information made available to them at the appropriate time.  From the assessment of project stakeholders and their communication needs, the initial communication plan should be updated with detailed information, and then should be reviewed periodically throughout the project.

The project Report Requirements document is used to provide enough detail about the specific report request to allow the developer to produce the desired report.  Many projects involve the creation or modification of one or more reports.  This template is designed to assist in capturing the necessary requirements for each of the reports to be produced by a project.

A Work Breakdown Structure, or WBS, is a visual representation of the tasks (in increasing detail) necessary to complete a project.  It resembles an organizational chart in structure, with the highest level representing high level project components or phases.  In increasing detail under the highest level, work is progressively “broken down” into smaller components until at the lowest level of the WBS work tasks can be described.  These lowest level tasks can then be scheduled and assigned to individuals, and entered into a Microsoft Project Schedule for tracking.

The Project Closure Report is intended to capture what we’ve learned during the course of a project, what we might do again, and what we might change in the future. Much can be learned from the delivery of a project.  Many things work well, some things do not.  For an organization to improve its ability to successfully deliver projects, and therefore products, we must all learn from each other’s successes and mistakes.  This template provides a guide to capturing this important information for documenting and sharing among the project’s Stakeholders and TR staff. "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” – George Santayana.