Why these four travel together
Most PMs stand up governance one artifact at a time, usually in the wrong order and usually after something went wrong. The charter gets written after the first scope fight. The risk register gets built the week before the audit. The decision log gets started the day after a steering meeting where nobody could answer why the program chose vendor A.
The four artifacts in this pack are the ones a steering committee actually checks, and each one covers a gap the others leave. The charter sets the contract. The RAID log runs the week. The register carries the strategic risks with audit-grade depth. The decision log keeps the rationale so the program never has to make the same call twice.
"Governance is not a binder. It is four living documents and a cadence."
Buy them once, stand them up in the first two weeks, and month four gets a lot quieter. Every template ships with its PDF cheat sheet and works in Excel and Google Sheets.
The stand-up order
- Week 1: the charter. Scope, out-of-scope, sponsor signature. Nothing else works without the contract.
- Week 2: the RAID log. First weekly review on the calendar before the log has ten rows.
- Week 2: the decision log. Start it the day the first real decision lands, not after the first dispute.
- Week 6-8: the risk register. Promote the top 10-15 strategic risks out of the RAID log and give them the deep treatment.
The order matters. A register without a working RAID log goes stale in a quarter; a RAID log without a charter has no scope line to defend.
Questions PMs ask
How is this different from the $99 full bundle?
The full bundle is all 17 tools. The Governance Pack is the four governance artifacts (charter, RAID log, risk register, decision log) for $59. If you need more than five or six tools, the $99 bundle is the better buy.
Can I buy the four tools separately?
Yes, every tool has its own listing: the charter is $39, and the RAID log, risk register, and decision log are $29 each. Bought separately they total $126; the pack is $59.
What does RAID stand for?
Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies. The four things that change under a program every week, held on one sheet with named owners and a 15-minute weekly review.
Excel or Google Sheets?
Both. Every template is .xlsx and opens cleanly in Google Sheets. The PDF cheat sheets are included for each tool.
