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Launching teams the right way is crucial for your project. And in the world of Agile, we call this chartering. If you come from a traditional sort of PMBOK background, you're probably familiar with the Project Charter. That's basically a document that kind of details everything about the project. That's not what we're discussing here. We're talking about the act of chartering, which is essential in Agile organizations. And there's two types. There's team chartering and Project chartering. Now, Team chartering, that involves bringing a new group of people together and creating the conditions for them to work together effectively. As a team. We want to establish things like our team, name our purpose, like what are the outcomes we're here to achieve? How will we measure success? Are there metrics we'll use to gauge performance? Our team's responsibilities? Let's get clear on what scope areas are in our control. Who are our stakeholders? These are people or teams we need to work with to achieve our goals. Team working agreements, how will we work effectively with each other? As well as our definition of done. That's the criteria that must be met for work to be done. And finally, what makes us unique? Our distinctions. Introducing the Kai Rise Agile Team Charter Template, your secret weapon that will boost your team's effectiveness by up to 50%. By guiding your teams through the steps in the charter, you'll define their purpose and ground rules for working together. No more guesswork or personality clashes. The Agile Team Charter gets everyone on the same page quickly. So download the Team Charter Template today. It's included with Toolkit plus, your source for over 20 different tools and templates that will supercharge your teams and make an impact like never before. Now, let's consider Project Chartering. Now, Project Chartering focuses on understanding the project itself. So it's going to include things like the project vision, that is why are we executing this project? How will we know we're successful? What's in the contract? What's our budget, scope and schedule considerations, any technical constraints or tooling we need, and finally, how we know we're ready to start and when we're done. Project Chartering focuses on understanding the vision, the goals, context for the specific project. So Team chartering and Project chartering, well, they're not the same. A team might stay together for multiple projects requiring Project Chartering for each new initiative, but not necessarily team chartering. Now, for me, I ask about Team chartering every time I join a team, even if they're already running. Chartering is often a step that gets skipped. When we have new projects and new teams, and even if it isn't skipped, it often becomes this stale, dusty document out in some shared file location that no one's looked at in months or years. I was part of a pretty high stakes software project for a major financial institution in Southern California and teams had skipped the chartering process. Just sort of assuming everyone understood the goals and their roles. Well, three months in, we realized different team members had conflicting ideas about the project's vision and how we define success as a team. We had to pause and step back and really conduct a proper chartering session. It was challenging, but it realigned the team and ultimately, I think, saved the project a ton of headaches. Now that experience taught me the immense value of chartering. It's not just a formality, it's a really important step that sets the foundation for project success and team cohesion. Got any tips on how to run one of these team chartering events? Of course I do. First, as I already mentioned, these workshops are typically facilitated by the delivery manager and they require active participation from the entire team. And the facilitator, that's you. You're going to guide the process, but remember, the team owns the content. Your role is to ensure all voices are heard and keep the session focused and productive. Depending on size and complexity of your project, you may need to break these sessions up over time. This isn't a one and done type activity. For smaller projects with one or two teams, a single chartering session can work well. But for larger initiatives, consider a sort of two tiered approach. A high level charter for the entire project, followed by team specific chartering events. Okay, so here's a quick checklist for an effective chartering event. Number one, you want to identify and invite all of your key stakeholders. Make sure to include all of your team members, your product owners, key business representatives, people like that. Number two, make sure you understand and have clearly defined the project vision, its goals and success criteria, as well as any key milestones and high level timelines. All right. Number three, choose and set up an appropriate venue. Now that could be physical or virtual, but you want to ensure that you have all the materials necessary. That might include whiteboards and sticky notes or online collaboration tools. All those things, make sure they're available. Number four, gather relevant project information and distribute any pre reading materials prior to the event to the participants at. Number five. This is kind of a fun one. Plan some icebreaker activities to build a little team rapport. And this is especially important if the team is new to each other Number six Be sure to use our team charter template to capture details from the event. And number seven this one's often overlooked. Set a reminder to follow up in a few weeks to check in on the team and ask if they need to make any updates on the charter now that they've been running for a bit. By following this checklist, you'll be well prepared to run a chartering workshop that aligns the teams and sets them up for success. Effective chartering is just part of the foundation of successful agile projects. It aligns the team, clarifies the goals, and sets the stage for collaborative, high performing teams. And by mastering this skill, you'll significantly increase your project's chance of success.