Project charter should include

Specifying key deliverables of the project should also fall in this section. The project charter should list the key stages and estimated duration of the project at a high level, including its milestones. However, the project manager should exercise caution in writing the project schedule, assuming that the project will immediately start after the approval. This section identifies the budget requirements of the project at a high level.

It should include capital and revenue expenditure forecast. This section lists the main assumptions that the project team took. It is important also to assess how these assumptions can impact the project should the team realize later that the assumptions they made were false or inaccurate. This lists the main risks that may impact the project if they materialize. It assumes that the project team cannot avoid encountering the identified risks. This section identifies the key metrics to help assess if the project is successful or not.

The measurable terms describe an outcome that is acceptable to the end user, customer, and stakeholders. When creating a project charter, it is important to understand context. Project charters are usually very lengthy documents. This is to ensure that it completely describes the background of the project, the different options considered, the details of the scope, and other factors. For large projects, an additional one-page Project Charter Summary provides the summary of the most important sections of the full project charter.

For small projects, this one-page template is an acceptable alternative. This short project charter is also useful when communicating with executives, who are usually not interested in all of the details and particulars.

The sections of the document are as follows:. Writing effective project charters comes with experience. However, it is possible to write good enough ones early on by following some advice from professionals who have spent their careers learning how to write great project charters. Try to keep the project charter simple and brief. Most likely, the more pages it contains, the less chances it will get read.

Try to get to the point as early as possible. Project sponsors and other stakeholders are busy professionals who may not show interest or enthusiasm reading a vague summary of a project. Most often, the sponsor hands it over to the project manager to write the project charter. However, the project charter is always better with the involvement of the sponsor, whether in support or actually co-creating and reviewing the document. After creating the project charter, let the sponsor sign it without delay.

Without the sign-off, there is no formal approval and authorization—and no project. Also, it is advisable to share the document promptly after approval. Project Management Software 5. Team Collaboration Tips 6. Agile Methodology Basics 7. Popular Agile PM Frameworks 9. Resources Glossary What is a project charter in project management? Adding potential risks and issues to the project charter helps everyone think ahead and even prevents potential roadblocks.

Tips for writing a project management charter Ready to create your own project charter? Project charter example Imagine that you and your team are putting together a webinar to generate some new leads. Webinar recording for continued lead generation Project Benefits: 1. Resource we can continue to promote Project Risks: 1. Recommended FAQ 5 questions. Download our mobile app for your Android or iOS device.

For partners Wrike Partner Program. How Wrike helps you Salesforce project management Gantt charts Collaboration tools for students Task management Google project management tools. A project charter gives stakeholders a clear sense of your project objectives, scope, and responsibilities. Key stakeholders can use the project charter to approve a project or suggest changes.

Create a business case if your project represents a significant business investment. Create a project plan if your project has been approved. A project plan will build on your project charter to provide additional information, like the project timeline or key project milestones.

Create a project brief if you want to create a document that summarizes the key high-level details of your project plan. Create an executive summary if you want to provide a summary of your document to executive stakeholders.

Create a project roadmap if you want to view a high-level timeline of your project in a Gantt chart. There are three main project charter elements:. To begin your project charter, share your project objectives and project purpose. In this section, you should outline why this project is important and what the key objectives are for the end of the project.

In addition to your project purpose, you should also clarify your project objectives. These are the things you plan to achieve by the end of the project, like deliverables or assets. Make sure your objectives are:.

The second key element in your project charter is the project scope. As you create your project charter, the most important part of explaining scope is outlining the ideal project budget. Remember, you will use your project charter document to pitch this project to stakeholders—so you need to clearly show what the budget is and where that money will go. In the final section of your project charter, you should explain who will be working on the project.

This includes any key project stakeholders, executive stakeholders, project sponsors, and the general project team. Name your project. Your project charter is a living document. Including the last revision date can be helpful for team members who are frequently checking back on the charter.