Eurolines Organisation IRIS Project Charter Integral Part of Eurolines Wayland Agreement Prepared by: D&H Anastasiu Version: 4.1 Date:
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 Purpose 1 Document Organisation 1 He, she 1 Participant 1 Partner 1 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, COMPETENCES 2 At Eurolines Level 2 Eurolines President 2 Secretary General 2 Users Meeting 2 Project Coordinator 2 Project Manager 2 At Company Level 3 General Manager 3 Company IRIS Coordinator 3 IT Expert 3 Bus Stop Codes Administrator 3 COMMUNICATION 4 Understanding how IRIS works 4 E-mail 4 Instant Messages 5 Project Website 5 ISSUE RESOLUTION PROCEDURES 5 CHANGE CONTROL 6 Project Charter 2006 final.doc iii
INTRODUCTION Purpose This document contains the general rules that should be observed by all persons involved in an IRIS project, so that the project: proceeds smoothly delivers a system that is robust and satisfies the business needs of every Eurolines Partner is completed in time and is completed within budget. This Project Charter is an integral part of the Agreement between Eurolines Services and Wayland Informatics Limited signed on. Document Organisation The document contains the following sections: Section 2 Roles, Responsibilities, Competences defines the responsibilities and competences of people playing various roles in this Eurolines Project. Section 3 Communication underlines the importance of good communication between the Participants and establishes the main rules regarding the two main communication means: correspondence by e-mail and the Project Website. Section 4 Issue Resolution Procedures defines the concept of issue and establishes how an issue is initiated (raised), logged, escalated and solved. Section 5 Change Control defines how changes to specifications, software and project procedures are proposed, discussed, approved and applied. He, she In this document a generic he means he or she; similarly, him means him or her. Participant In this document Participant means any person or company involved in the project. Partner In this document Partner means a Eurolines Member involved in the project Project Charter 2006 final.doc 1
ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, COMPETENCES At Eurolines Level Eurolines President The Eurolines President makes all major decisions regarding the project. 1. Decides on priorities within the Project. 2. Decides in the case of issues not resolved by the Users Meeting. 3. Receives Project Management Reports from the Project Manager. Secretary General Administrates the Eurolines Code lists, such as the Eurolines Bus Stop Dictionary and the Company Codes. Users Meeting 1. The Users Meeting makes decisions with the simple majority of the companies represented in the meeting. 2. It is recommended for Partners intending to propose a Decision to send the draft to all other Partners 14 days before the start of the Meeting. Any suggestions for improving the draft are welcomed. 3. The Decisions are mandatory for all Partners 4. Partners having objections will forward their objections to the Executive Committee within 14 days after the Meeting. Project Coordinator 1. Enforces EL policies and rules 2. Enforces the Project rules as defined in this Agreement and Project Charter, the decisions of Users Meetings. 3. Convinces Partners Management to adopt IRIS and to generalise it to all lines. 4. Mediates between Partners when the Project Manager fails to reach an agreement. He escalates the issue to the Executive Committee or to the EL President whenever he fails to reach an agreement. 5. Mediates between Partners and Wayland Informatics. He escalates the issue to the Executive Committee or to the EL President whenever he fails to reach an agreement. 6. Convenes the IRIS Users Meeting whenever necessary but at least once per year 7. Arranges for additional resources to be provided by ELS as necessary. Project Manager 1. Performs Project Planning, Scheduling and Control 2. Identifies and resolves issues and differences of opinion between Participants 3. Escalates unresolved issues to the Project Coordinator 4. Reports to Eurolines President and General Managers the state of the project Project Charter 2006 final.doc 2
5. Advises the General Managers on problems related to the project 6. Liaises with all Participants At Company Level General Manager 1. Defines company s objectives and policies regarding IRIS and other reservations related applications 2. Assigns the company s IRIS Coordinator and IT expert 3. Decides on internal issues 4. Liaises with other General Managers, with the Project Coordinator and with the Project Manager in order to solve inter-company issues 5. Communicates WIL yearly and whenever there is a change the list of Company Authorised Contacts Company IRIS Coordinator This person is responsible for the implementation and efficient use of the system in the company. 1. Plans the IRIS related activities in the company 2. Updates the plans when necessary 3. Sends the Project Manager a copy of the plan and updates 4. Coordinates the activities in accordance with the plan 5. Identifies and tries to resolve issues inside the company; escalates the issue to the General Manager and/or to the Project Manager. 6. Reports to the General Manager and to the Project Manager the state of the project inside the company monthly (on the 25th of the month) and when requested 7. Liaises with the Project Manager, with the other IRIS Coordinators and with the IT Expert. 8. Visits weekly the project website and makes comments or objections regarding change requests; formulates change requests on behalf of the company IT Expert 1. Develops and maintains the Partner s software in accordance with the specification 2. Liaises with the Project Manager and with the other IT experts 3. Visits weekly the project website and makes comments or objections regarding change requests; formulates change requests on behalf of the company Bus Stop Codes Administrator 1. Maintains the Partner s Bus Stop Catalogue in accordance with the Eurolines Rules regarding this matter. 2. Liaises with the Eurolines Bus Stop Dictionary (BSD) Administrator at Wayland. Note: There can be only one Bus Stop Codes Administrator for a Partner Project Charter 2006 final.doc 3
COMMUNICATION Good communication between all persons involved in an Information System project is recognised unanimously to be the main prerequisite for the success of that project. This means that when communicating with others each Participant should make the necessary effort to: express himself in the most clear way possible make sure he really understands the message received and asks for clarification if he thinks the message or document is not clear reply promptly and politely all messages received gives accurate answers to questions and clearly points out if the answer is uncertain avoids panicking and spreading panic IRIS is a particularly difficult project under this aspect if we keep in mind that: the Participants are not located in the same room or building but in various towns across Europe regular face to face meeting are practically impossible; phone calls are in most cases prohibitive Participants belong to various independent companies with different cultures, policies and business processes the official language of the project (English) is a foreign language for all Partners but two. This is why, without a rigorous discipline of communication this project simply cannot work as expected. Understanding how IRIS works In order to communicate effectively all IRIS users must have a relatively good understanding of the IRIS architecture. They must be aware that the only common data structures are IRIS files and the IRIS folders on the Eurolines PO Servers. The user interface of their own reservation system is unknown to other IRIS Participants. Thus, in order to ensure a smooth communication and cooperation between Partners, the IRIS subscribers are obliged to equip their Operations Departments with a professional FTP Client and to enable their direct access to the Eurolines PO Servers. E-mail 1. E-mail is the main means of communications between IRIS project members. 2. Any Participant will correspond by e-mail with other Participants. Depending on the importance of the e-mail, he may send a copy of the message to management. 3. For messages regarding current operations such as not received IRIS files the response time should be as short as possible but not longer than 24 hours. For other messages the response time should be less than five working days. 4. The receiver of an e-mail message (or his substitute, see below) must send an acknowledgement and if possible the answer to the request within the limits mentions under 3 above. If the recipient is not able to give the required answer within this limit he must propose a new time limit. Project Charter 2006 final.doc 4
5. If the acknowledgement and/or answer are not received within the above mentioned time limit the sender or the Project Manager may decide at his own discretion to do one of the following: 5.1. Make an inquiry by phone at the expense of the respective Partner 5.2. Escalate the case to a higher level. 6. To avoid the consequences mentioned above under 5 in case he is absent from work, it is highly recommended that the Company Coordinator takes precautionary measures, such as: 6.1. Appoints one of his colleagues as his Substitute. The Project Manager will cc all messages to the substitute. In the absence of the main addressee the Substitute must observe the rules defined in this section, mainly rule no 4 above. It is not mandatory the substitute to be an expert; it could be for instance a Secretary. 6.2. Announces the Project Manager when he plans to be absent for a longer time, e.g. more than 3 days. Instant Messages 1. For urgent and short messages, mainly for communications that need a dialogue or members will use the MSN Messenger or Skype. In order to make possible conference chats all Participants should use the same instant message programs, as decided by Eurolines. Project Website Each project maintains a Project Folder containing up-to-date project deliverables such as the System Specification. In order to perform their tasks, Participants in a normal project team can borrow the folder or parts of it and extract the up-to-date information they need. Not so in the IRIS project. Of course Project Management maintains a Project Folder but due to the geographic situation, Participants will not be able to borrow it. The Project Website will play the role of the Project Folder in our case. 1. the Project Website will be kept permanently up to date 2. it will contain a Discussions section which will be used for exchanging views between Participants and for Change Control purposes (see chapter 5) 3. it will contain a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page where all questions raised by Participants will be posted together with the relevant answers 4. if a Participant disagrees with any document posted on the website he must immediately raise the problem to the Project Manager. ISSUE RESOLUTION PROCEDURES 1. An issue is any situation that may cause the project to be late, over budget or not meeting the business needs or objectives, e.g.: a piece of information is not available, disagreement between two Partners or Participants, an overdue decision or task etc 2. The Project Manager will keep a Log of Issues with the columns: Issue No, Description, Who raised the issue, Date of initiation, Priority, Resolution, State, Date of closure. 3. Every Participant can raise an issue by writing to the Project Manager. Project Charter 2006 final.doc 5
4. The Project Manager logs the issue, assesses its impact, evaluates and proposes possible resolutions. If one of the resolutions is accepted by all interested parties the issue is closed. Otherwise the Project Manager will escalate the issue to the Project Coordinator. 5. The Project Coordinator will make a decision or exceptionally will escalate the issue to the Eurolines President. CHANGE CONTROL 1. Any Participant to the project has the right to request changes in the system s specifications and/or procedures. This chapter states how a change should be requested, approved and implemented. 2. The Requestor will use the Requirements Discussion section of the project website to request a change to the current specification. A change may: add a new feature remove a feature modify a feature change a Mandatory attribute to Optional or vice versa modify a text to make it clearer other The request will also propose a deadline for the implementation. 3. Each Participant is invited to inspect the Requirements Table of Contents at least weekly to see new change requests and to reply to them. He may support a request and perhaps bring new for arguments or on the contrary he may oppose the request bringing clear contra arguments, possibly ask for clarifications or propose a different deadline. 4. If there are no objections within the next 7 calendar days, the request will be considered approved. 5. If there are objections the request will be referred to the IRIS Coordinator. 6. Any Participant not satisfied with the decision of the Project Coordinator is entitled to raise an issue. 7. If the change is approved, the relevant document on the project s website will be modified accordingly and the following actions will be taken to make the change clearly visible and understood: The changes will be made in red and the old text will be strikethrough (something like this); where technology allows the change will be marked with a vertical line on the left hand side. These marks will be removed 60 days later. Each document will include a "Revision Record" which will contain the history of changes and will explain shortly each change and the reasons for that change. The change will be announced on the project s site home page. An IRIS Newsletter announcing that there are changes will be issued and sent per e-mail to all subscribers. 8. The Partner is obliged to implement the change by the approved deadline if the change affects their software or business processes. The failure to do this will be treated by the Project Manager or any interested Participant as an issue. 9. The Change Control procedure can be used to make changes to this Project Charter. Project Charter 2006 final.doc 6