What is a project initiative charter, and how can project ideas in an organization be effectively collected?

It has long been known that many organizations need to realize the potential of their employees fully. It is about the potential to create good project ideas to improve several things in the organization. Since project management begins with generating a good idea, examining such a process more closely is worth exploring. Check out how helpful an initiative card can be and how you can use it to get project ideas in your organization.

What is an initiative charter?

In many organizations, you will find an Initiative Charter or, similarly, an Idea Charter. This format in an organization is used either to collect ideas or to clarify what a particular project idea is all about. Often, in companies, you can find situations where someone from the company’s management “throws” the project name, and the project team immediately starts implementing it. Taking a few more steps between generating a project idea and the start of project implementation is worthwhile. It is undeniably valuable to think about a given idea more profoundly and describe it in a structured way using an Initiative Card. Project management is a discipline where several so-called “lessons learned” have been collected so far, and they say that it is worth thinking and planning everything meticulously before proceeding. A simple Idea Card should be easily accessible. Ideally, it should be in some information system for employees to enter their project ideas there.

What should an initiative charter contain, and when should it be used?

The Initiative Charter is a document that should be designed individually in each organization. Of course, it is a good idea to be inspired by various examples of Idea Charters from other organizations. Still, it is undeniably worth trying to ensure that the Initiative Charter in a particular company is tailored to its organizational culture. The following illustration shows an example of an Initiative Card, an integral part of the FlexiProject project and portfolio management software.

The above example of an Idea Card is probably used to describe projects of a sales, development, or marketing nature since there is a field for competitive analysis in the last section. In FlexiProject project management software, you can create templates for project charter, including Initiative Cards or Idea Cards. Different templates of Idea Cards for different types of potential projects make quite a lot of sense. Various aspects of a project are worth considering for sales or marketing projects and others for investment or research and development projects. Collecting and analyzing ideas can be divided into at least three stages. The first stage is the generation of project ideas, the second stage is the refinement of initially “sifted” and prospective ideas, and the third stage is the structural selection of those most attractive to the organization.

What is a Project Charter and how to prepare it? [EXAMPLE]

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Benefits of using an initiative charter

As mentioned above, the process from idea to approval of a project for implementation can be divided into at least three stages. The second stage involves the Initiative Charter. Project management assumes an idea should be well described and thought out to decide whether to start a project objectively. Undoubtedly, the Initiative Charter is used for this description. Those submitting a project for implementation, when describing it in the Initiative Charter, are required to think multi-dimensionally about several aspects. This comprehensive thinking includes considering the project’s scope, the benefits it will bring to the organization, potential risks, etc. All this makes the project idea more and more “crystallized.” If possibly all the pre-approved project ideas are described through the Initiative Card, they can be ranked in terms of their mutual attractiveness. And this, in turn, will make those making decisions about launching projects for implementation much more comfortable.

Project ideas - how do we collect them in an organization?

Developing an excellent process to systematically collect project ideas in an organization is essential. In the past, many organizations used idea boxes. These were physical boxes into which an employee could drop their project idea. At regular intervals, ideas from these boxes were taken out and analyzed. Undoubtedly, nowadays, taking advantage of the high availability of various types of IT programs, such a process can and definitely should be automated. Project ideas no longer need to be dropped into boxes. Providing a system with a simple format for describing a project idea is straightforward. There are undoubtedly several advantages to using IT software for this process. First, different categories of ideas can be created immediately; second, ideas can be pre-evaluated by multiple employees in the organization; and third, dedicated campaigns can be made for ideas on a specific issue.

How do you think you could evaluate project ideas?

The scoring method is a common approach to evaluating project ideas. It involves developing a set of criteria, assigning them appropriate weights, and using them to assess each idea for a potential project. This method’s critical role is to provide a structured and objective way to evaluate ideas, which, in turn, offers significant comfort in decision-making. The following illustration shows the mutual attractiveness of ideas/projects in the New Product Development project portfolio.

The matrix shown has two dimensions. The horizontal axis denotes the Benefits the project will bring to the organization, and the vertical axis denotes its Complexity. In turn, the illustration below shows potential detailed questions that relate to the Benefits axis.

Summary

In conclusion, it is worth using the potential of employees who can generate good project ideas at every level of the organization. The Initiative Card is very helpful because it allows you to describe a project idea in a structured way. In conclusion, it is worth designing and implementing a process for collecting project ideas in the organization.