Help Manual

Contents






Sigma Magic Help Version 17

Team Charter

Overview

A team charter is a document developed in a group setting that can help clarify how the team will work together and establish clear boundaries to make the team's work clear and compelling. It is usually developed early in the formation of the team. The team charter should be developed in a group session to encourage understanding and buy-in from all the team members. Investing time and energy to develop a team charter helps reduce confusion on the team's way of working and reduces rework and disagreements.

Inputs

To add this tool to your workbook, click on Lean and then select Team Charter. Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.

Setup

A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
Input Dialog
1
Analysis Type: Specify the tool format for this analysis. This selection is not enabled since there is only one format available.
2
Threshold Value: The input dialog box can specify the threshold for the team survey results. Any survey results greater than this threshold are shown in green, and results less than this threshold are shown in red.
3
View Example: Click on this button to add an example worksheet. You can use the example to understand how others have filled out the tool or use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your needs better.
4
Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
5
Cancel Button: Click on this button to cancel all changes to the settings and exit this dialog box.
6a
Create Button: Click on this button to save all changes and update the worksheet layout (if any).
6b
OK Button: Click on this button to save all changes and compute the outputs for this analysis.
The worksheet consists of a set of agreements that you make with the team in each of the following areas:
  • How does the team resolve conflicts that may arise within the team?
  • How are decisions made within the team?
  • What are some ground rules regarding team meetings?
  • Where are the meetings going to be conducted, and what is the agreed meeting frequency?
  • What are the various roles and responsibilities of individual team members?
  • Based on the team gap assessment, what are the identified gaps for this team?
  • If there are gaps, what actions are you planning to take to close the gaps?
At the bottom of the worksheet, there are some generic questions to assess teams concerning four areas:
  • What are the goals of this team? Do we understand the expectations of all of our stakeholders? Have we captured the team goals measurably? Do we have specific goals?
  • What are the team roles and responsibilities? Do we have an agreement within the team on these roles and responsibilities?
  • Are we focusing on the right processes, and do we have good communication within the team?
  • Do we have shared expectations on how to deal with interpersonal issues? Is there a relationship and trust between the team members?
Each team member is to answer these survey questions, and the overall average response can be entered in this worksheet. If any of the survey elements are less than the threshold selected in the input dialog box, those elements are shown in red. These need to be captured in the top portion of the worksheet, and actions need to be defined to close any gaps.

Checklist

You will see the following dialog box if you click the Checklist button. Checklist The checklist contains a few pointers on things you must pay particular attention to while performing this analysis. The checklist has been derived from experience working on past projects. Not all the checklist items need to apply to you. However, you should carefully review the checklist and apply any recommendations that make sense for your project. Make sure to read each checklist item and mark it as completed after you have read and taken actions as appropriate for your project.
1
Item: The items on the checklist are listed on the left
2
Status: The status of whether the checklist has been answered is listed on the right. If all the checked items are okay, the status image in the header will show a green checkmark. If any checks fail, then the status image in the header will show a red cross mark.
Ideally, all items on the checklist should be marked as reviewed/completed.

Charts

You will see the following dialog box if you click the Charts button. Charts
1
Title: The system will automatically pick a title for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your title, you can specify a title for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
2
Sub Title: The system will automatically pick a subtitle for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your subtitle, specify a subtitle for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
3
X Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your label for the x-axis, you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
4
Y Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your label for the y-axis, you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
5
X Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the x-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to determine the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum x-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum x-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, the x-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is currently disabled, and you cannot change this setting.
6
Y Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the y-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to determine the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum y-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum y-axis is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the y-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is optional.
7
Horizontal Lines: You can specify the values here if you want to add a few extra horizontal reference lines on top of your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 12;15, two horizontal lines are plotted at Y = 12 and Y = 15, respectively. Note that this input is optional.
8
Vertical Lines: You can specify the values here if you want to add a few extra vertical reference lines on top of your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 2;5, two vertical lines are plotted at X = 2 and X = 5, respectively. Note that this input is optional.

Verify

If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below. Verify The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark, and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
1
Item: The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
2
Status: The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
3
Overall Status: The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay.

Outputs

Once you have answered all the data on the worksheet, click on Compute Outputs to the analysis results. A sample screenshot of the team charter outputs is shown below. Outputs If all the template elements have been filled out, you will get the following message when you click on the Compute Outputs button. Team Charter Outputs You can review the current selections and work on the selected action items to close the gaps and improve your team's efficiency.

Notes

Here are a few pointers regarding this analysis:
  • To add new bullets on the next line, copy and paste an existing bullet, and to move it to the next line, use Alt-Enter to create a new line within the cell.

Examples

The following examples are in the Examples folder.
  1. Create a team charter for a new team you have been assigned to lead (Team Charter 1.xlsx).

References

For more information on this topic, please refer to the following articles. Do note that if any external links are mentioned below, they are for reference purposes only.

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