When a business standardizes one of its processes, it is justified, financed and sustained within the boundaries of a business process management project charter. Therefore, a project charter defines the issue to be resolved, the scope and the goals of the undertaking and the roles and responsibilities of the parties involved. It is a contract between the management and the team that will implement the change.

In light of the above, this article will highlight how to write a business process management project charter.

To start with, there is no single way to write a project charter. The length and format are purely in the prerogative of the writer. However, if you want it to be read, write a brief one. The ideal project charter should be 2 pages maximum; if you really have to exceed this, then 5 page is your final limit.

I worked with an Agile Coach who used to be a development manager and was famous for telling people he could expect a 5-10% attrition of his employees when Agile was getting introduced. It begs the question of why in the world an organization would be willing to undergo such a disruptive change in how they work, knowing that such a large portion of their current staff will consider leaving because of it? For many organizations, the answer became self-apparent. They have recognized the need to be faster, more adaptive in their market. They became self-aware in knowing that, without such a change, they would quickly become an afterthought. So, the need for change is apparent but how does an organization deal with the inherent personnel issues that could come with adopting an Agile culture? By not taking this part of the change into serious consideration, you could be inadvertently undermining your entire transition into an Agile organization!

When analyzing a function for improvement, it is common practice to document the existing operations into what is widely known as a current state. This current state operational view serves as a baseline for improvements. It identifies the inputs, work steps, and outputs (and often a lot more). It serves to ground the team and provide a starting point for designing a future state. In contrast, future states are the destination. They are the sum total of the improvements to the current state to get to a new more effective and efficient operational state. Generally current state and future state views are documented as process maps or flows. Both the current state and the future state are powerful steps for improvement teams to understand where they are today and where they are going in the future.

Let me start with a definition of agile as it applies to operating models or processes: “being able to turn on a dime for a dime” and “being able to change faster and more cheaply than your competitors”.   These phrases are taken from, who was part of the team who coined the term agile as being relevant to the lean and six sigma community.  In this community, agile is associated with short-period (often six-week), test-and-learn projects, at the end of which priorities and direction can be reset based on what has been learned.  It is also associated with “minimum viable product”: the way of testing a new idea.

In today’s demanding business environment that rewards flexibility, speed, quality, efficiency, effectiveness and innovation, a strategically competitive middle- and back-office strategy and its operational execution can be a roadmap to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Business Process Management (BPM) helps an asset management company achieve these characteristics in the components of its value chain.  Applying the BPM discipline achieves measurable process improvements that lead to organizational performance improvements in the middle- and back-office.

Middle- and BACK-OFFICE challenges

Delivering Agile Projects within Structured Project, Process and Quality Management Frameworks

The most important factor in successful Agile adoption (and expansion) is aligning it to the culture, standards and constraints of your organization.  Even the most effective Agile project work risks losing executive support if it cannot meet the overarching management, compliance, administrative and reporting structures established by the organization.  Unless you are in the unique position of being able to adjust your organizational structures to suit the flexibility of Agile approaches, you will need to find a way for your team’s Agile work to comply with these corporate standards.  Thankfully, this is an achievable goal, although it may take some creative thinking to make it work within your specific organizational constraints.