This blog will help you understand what a project charter is, how to develop one, and show the various techniques involved in creating one. With this guide, you will be able to create your own project charters for your projects in no time!
What is a Project Charter?
A project charter is a document that serves as the proof of existence of a project. It provides the project direction and it outlines the objectives. The stakeholders of the project are also listed in the document.
How do you Create a Project Charter?
According to creately.com, there are eight key steps involved in creating a project charter. There are as follows:
Identify the vision of the project (project vision). The project vision can be divided into three categories: scope, objectives, and deliverables.
Scope: define the goals, deliverables, costs of the project. Make sure you include the deadlines and specify the work that needs to be done.
Objectives: make sure the objectives you set are “specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely” (creately.com, 2021).
Deliverables: list any deliverables that will be produced at the end of each objective.
List all the stakeholders and customers. Stakeholders include those that fund the project and any team members involved.
If it helps, create a chart. Use the chart to list names and their roles and use connecting lines to highlight relationships.
Define the milestones of the project. List important milestones within the project, their start and end dates, the deliverables that should be completed.
List all the resources that you will need for the project.
Set the budget. The budget may change as the project goes on, but it is a good idea to make an estimation on how much the project will cost.
List the dependencies, constraints, and risks of the project.
Dependencies: “activities that will have an impact on the initiation or the completion of another task” (creately.com, 2021).
Constraints: anything that could potentially hinder the progress of a project.
Risks: list any potential risks that you can think of before the project and plan ahead and how you will address them if it comes up.
Put together an action plan that includes the key dates and milestones.
Structure
The general layout of a project charter is as follows:
Project Title: list the title of the project.
Date of Authorization: the date the project was approved.
Project Start Date: the date the project will officially start.
Projected Finish Date: the estimated date the project should be finished by.
Key Schedule Milestones: list the date each stage of the project should be completed by.
Budget Information: list the budget of the project and the plan for how it will be used.
Project Manager: the project manager’s name and their contact information.
Project Objectives: lists the main goal(s) of the project. Why are you doing this?
Main Project Success Criteria: list the requirements the project must meet in order for the project to be considered successful.
Approach: provide a detailed plan on how the project will be completed.
Roles and Responsibilities: list everyone involved in the project. You should include their names, roles, positions, and their contact information. Each person should also sign-off on it.
Comments: any additional comments the stakeholders have will be listed here.
Keep in mind a project charter does not have to be structured exactly like this. There could be some sections added or removed depending on the project. For example, sometimes it is a good idea to include a section on project risks and potential problem areas so that your team can plan ahead. Another example would be listing the project deliverables.
Important Tips to Remember When Creating a Project Charter
You now know the basics on what a project charter is, how to make one, and the general structure. Wrike.com has some important keeps to keep in mind as you are creating your own project charter:
Rely on the insights from your team. Get together with your team members and work together when discussing goals, milestones and the potential problem areas. This will help to create a more accurate project charter that everyone agrees on.
The project charter should be short and to the point. Remember that a project charter is meant to be a general overview of the project and it does not have to include every small detail.
Create a template. Templates can save a lot of time down the road when creating project charters for other projects.
Using Project Charters in Agile
Project charters have an essential role in an agile environment. They help keep everyone in team informed on what the main objectives of the project are so that the objectives don't change too much from the original. In agile, as you may already know, things can happen and your team may have to reschedule some milestones, or change objectives slightly. But the goal behind this document is too make sure things don't deviate too far off course.
Example of a Project Charter
For reference, I have created a project charter for the website my team is building.
Somehow I Manage Project Charter
Project Title: Creating a Blog About Project Management
Project Description: Build a website that explains the various components of project management.
Date of Authorization: September 18, 2021
Project Start Date: September 18, 2021
Projected Finish Date: December 8, 2021
Key Schedule Milestones:
Complete four blog posts by each Saturday starting on September 18, 2021
Final website should be complete by December 8, 2021
Budget Information: Since this is a school project, the budget is $0.
Project Manager: Cindy Burke
Project Objectives: The goal of this project is to help people understand the principles of project management. All the team members will gain experience by going through this process for the first time.
Main Project Success Criteria:
Each team member produces a blog post each week.
The website should be a clean and simple design, as well as easy to navigate
Minimal grammatical errors
The website should be informative
Users should be able to able to have a general understanding of how project management works
Approach: Every Tuesday, we will have team meetings to check in and see where everyone is at. We will also decide what each person is going to blog about that week and create user stories that we aim to complete. After that, each team member goes off on their own and completes their blog post that satisfies the user story that they created by that Saturday.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Cindy Burke, Project Manager
Jeremiah Gurley, Blogger and Web Designer
Zeke Van Dehy, Blogger and Web Designer
Cameron Cross, Blogger and Web Designer
Lane Gentry, Blogger and Web Designer
Comments: no additional comments at this time.
References
Athuraliya, A. (2021, July 26). The Easy Guide to Creating a Successful Project Charter. Retrieved September 18, 2021, from https://creately.com/blog/project-management/what-is-a-project-charter-guide-templates/
Schwalbe, K. (2018). Information Technology Project Management (9th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning.
What Is a Project Charter in Project Management? (2021). Retrieved September 18, 2021, from https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-is-a-project-charter-in-project-management/
Image
6 Step Project Charter Infographic Template | PPT & Keynote Templates. (2021, October 23). Retrieved November 5, 2021, from https://rrslide.com/downloads/6-step-project-charter-infographic-template/
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