Terms of reference (TOR) define the purpose and structures of a

project A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

meeting A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision making. Defin ...

negotiation Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties to reach the desired outcome regarding one or more issues of conflict. It is an interaction between entities who aspire to agree on matters of mutual interest. The agreement c ...

, or any similar collection of people who have agreed to work together to accomplish a shared goal. Terms of reference show how the object in question will be defined, developed, and verified. They should also provide a documented basis for making future decisions and for confirming or developing a common understanding of the scope among stakeholders. In order to meet these criteria,

success factor Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person migh ...

s/risks and constraints are fundamental. They define the: * vision, objectives, scope and deliverables (i.e. what has to be achieved) * stakeholders, roles and responsibilities (i.e. who will take part in it) * resource, financial and quality plans (i.e. how it will be achieved) *

work breakdown structure A work-breakdown structure (WBS) in project management and systems engineering is a deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project into smaller components. A work breakdown structure is a key project deliverable that organizes the team's work int ...

and schedule (i.e. when it will be achieved) TORs should include: * success factors, risks and constraints. Although the terms of reference of a project are sometimes referred to as the project charter, there are significant differences between the two. This article describes a TOR containing detailed definitions, while a project charter has high-level requirements, assumptions, constraints and descriptions as well as a budget summary without detail, and a milestone-only schedule.

Project life-cycle

The terms of reference are created during the earlier stages of

project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...

by the founders of the project in question, immediately after the approval of a project business case. They are documented by the

project manager A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined fi ...

and presented to the project sponsor or sponsors for approval. Once the terms have been approved, the members of the project team have a clear definition of the scope of the project. They will then be ready to progress with implementing the remaining project deliverables. This phrase "terms of reference" often refers to the task(s) assigned to a consultant or adviser. Such a consultant or adviser may be engaged via a contract with general terms of engagement that also incorporate the terms of reference that specifically describe the consultant's task.

References

{{Reflist Project management

Project life-cycle

See also

References