A project charter is a crucial document that authorizes a project, outlining its goals, scope, stakeholders, and risks, and should be collaboratively created early in the project lifecycle. It provides a concise picture of the project to establish common understanding and reduce miscommunication among key stakeholders. Essential sections of a charter include background, goals, scope, milestones, budget, and assessment of constraints, assumptions, risks, and dependencies.

1. Project Charter Guide
Created by Casual.pm

2. WHAT IS A PROJECT CHARTER
A project charter is a central document that defines
the fundamental information about a project and is
used to authorize it.
In a nutshell, a charter provides a picture of where you
are going, why you are going there, who will be impacted,
the main risks involved, and who is going to help you. It’s
crucial that the charter not only establishes basic
information, but also that it reflects the key stakeholders’
common vision.

3. WHAT IS A PROJECT CHARTER
A project charter is typically created early in
the project lifecycle, hopefully before the
project is staffed and the business is running
for a delivery date.
It is usually created collaboratively as a team
and shared with stakeholders upon completion.
In most cases the charter is signed off for
approval by project sponsors.

4. WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE?
The project charter is a document. There is no
universal formula for a project charter. It can
either brief or as long as 50 pages. But the more
detailed it is the less chance that someone will
actually read it.
We believe that you do want your project
charter to be read, so try to keep your project
charter to a maximum of 5 pages. Ideally it
should be 1-2 pages.

5. DO I REALLY NEED IT?
Absolutely yes. Here are two killer benefits supporting why
you must use project charters:
1. You circulate a big picture of your project amongst key
stakeholders. It’s crucial that the common vision of basic
parameters and structure be the same for everyone,
especially during the initial stage of your project when there
are so much uncertain or vague things.
It will drastically decrease your problems with
miscommunications and eventually save a ton of your time
(because we all know that one thing might look absolutely
different from someone else’s perspective).

6. DO I REALLY NEED IT?
2. Basic information about your project is gathered in
one place. Without establishing things like: Why are
you undertaking this project? What do you consider to
be a project success? How will you measure this
success? Without these benchmark questions you'll
feel like as though you're aimlessly wandering, never
quite knowing if you're heading in the right direction.

7. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE CHARTER?
We suggest using the following sections:
1 Background
Give a straightforward answer to the question:
‘why are you doing this project?’. Describe what
problem it solves and what gave you the
opportunity to make your idea a reality. Try to
articulate this section as if you’re trying to hire a
complete stranger and you need to briefly explain
the basic elements of your project.

8. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE CHARTER?
2. Goals
Describe what goals you are going to achieve and when. It’s
crucial that your goals be specific and measurable (SMART).
For example, “Significantly increase customer satisfaction
level” is a bad goal because it’s up to interpretation as to
whether or not you’ve met it. However, “Increase retention
rate from 5% till 10% by the end of 2015” is a good one.
It’s essential that upon reading over your goals you clearly
understand what you consider to be a successful part of your
project and how you measure that.

9. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE CHARTER?
3. Scope
What product, service, or result do you expect to get
from this project? What actions will your team take to
undertake the project?
It’s also important to mention what your team will not
do. For example, your end product is “a new website for a
public library”. You will develop and design it. But will you
test it, set it up or fill this site with content? Try to make it
absolutely clear what you are going to do and what you
aren’t. It helps you eliminate any confusion in the future.

10. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE CHARTER?
4. Key Stakeholders
Make a list of people involved in your project.
Some sort of who is who in it: PM, sponsor,
client and team members. If you don’t know
names of individuals, list the title of the required
position and department.

11. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE CHARTER?
5. Project Milestones
Establish significant dates of your project: start date, end date,
invoicing dates. It’s important to understand that these dates
are merely guesses. When writing the charter you don’t have
firm dates yet.
6. Project Budget
Make a note of the main project expenses. Treat them as
rough estimations. Try to make note of non-recurring and
monthly recurring costs separately.

12. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE CHARTER?
7. Constraints, Assumptions, Risks and Dependencies.
Constraints:
These are the limiting factors that impact your project in a particular way. For
example, when developing a new website the number of available
programmers and technical limitations (platform, coding language, etc.) must
be considered.
Assumptions:
Factors that you are relying on in order to succeed in your project. These
factors are considered to be true, but without including proof. A few
assumptions: contractors will be paid without delay and your client will test
the website.

13. WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE CHARTER?
Risks:
Anything that might get in the way of you and your team when you’re trying to
accomplish your project goals. Make sure to carefully weigh in on this point and clearly
articulate the risks. A few examples:
• Tight timeframe. The deadline doesn’t allow for any force majeure circumstances
• Part of the team are volunteers with no-money motivation –which may mean that
you’ll have to find and train new project participants.
• Technical risks: i.e. part of the platform where you’re planning on setting up your
website may be an open source and may not be updated.
Dependencies:
An absolutely essential part of the project. For a new website it’d be client-driven
content.

14. HOW TO CREATE IT.
Don’t do it alone. The best way to create a charter is to do it
with your entire team by having a project charter session.
Get everyone together and cover the main points in the
document. You may notice that many participants will have
different perspectives on the project and that’s excellent.
You’ll reach a consensus during the discussion.
But keep in mind that making a project charter is an
interactive process. After the project charter session write a
rough draft and send it to all project participants. Gather their
feedback and update the document. Discuss and finalize the
document one more time and have the project sponsor sign it
once it’s been approved.

15. Thank You!
Here’s a free project charter template you might
use with this guide.
This guide is originally published here
http://project-charter-template.casual.pm/