What Is a Project Charter in Project Management?
What Is a Project Charter in Project Management?
When starting a new project, it’s essential to have a clear plan in place to ensure success. That’s where a project charter comes in.
Project charter definition
A project charter is a document that defines the objectives, scope, and stakeholders of a project, providing a roadmap for the team to follow. It is the foundation of a successful project, offering clarity and direction to the team and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what a project charter is. We’ll talk about the benefits it brings as well as tips for writing one. We will also share a project charter example with all the essential components.
With Wrike, you can easily create and customize project charters to suit your specific needs, streamlining the planning process and increasing productivity for an improved return on investment. Try Wrike for free today and experience the benefits for yourself.
The project charter overview
The project charter typically documents the following parts of the project:
- Project objectives and constraints
- Key stakeholders
- Risks identified
- Benefits of the project
- General overview of the budget
Ready to create your own project charter?
How to create a project charter
There are four clear steps to creating your own project charter.
Step 1: Understand key project goals and objectives
Identify the project vision and determine the scope of the project. This step is crucial to creating a project charter as it sets the tone for the rest of the project by establishing what is to be accomplished and what constraints or limitations exist within the project scope.
Step 2: Define project organization
List all of the essential roles for the project, including customers, stakeholders, and the day-to-day project team. The project charter should clearly outline the responsibilities of each team member, as this helps to ensure everyone involved in the project is aware of their respective roles and can work together effectively.
Step 3: Create an implementation plan
Outline major milestones, dependencies, and the timeline for the entire team and stakeholders. The implementation plan is a critical component of the project charter, as it provides a roadmap for how the project will be executed, including key deliverables. This allows the project team to stay on track and ensure that the project schedule is met.
Step 4: List potential problem areas
This isn’t about being a downer — it’s more about being realistic. By identifying potential problem areas in advance, the team can develop contingency plans to mitigate risks and address challenges as they arise, ultimately helping to keep the project on track.
What do I do once I finish writing my project charter?
Step 1: Authorize the project
Once the project charter is complete, it should be presented to stakeholders for approval. This step allows the project to move forward and gives the project team the green light to start work. Stakeholder approval is a critical aspect of the change management process.
Step 2: Develop a scope statement
The scope statement should clearly define what the project will accomplish and what it will not. This helps to ensure that the project stays on track and that the project team and stakeholders have a clear understanding of the project’s goals and objectives. Any changes to a scope statement will impact the work breakdown structure.
Tips for writing a project management charter
As you work through the above steps, you might also benefit from some of these tips.
Rely on insights from your team
Don’t feel like you need to work out all this information on your own. Pull together some of your project team members to pick their brains about goals, milestones, and potential problem areas. Gathering their insights will help you create a far more accurate project charter.
Keep it short and straightforward
It’s tempting to get lost in the amount of information available. But keep in mind that your project charter is supposed to be a high-level overview of your project and not a breakdown that covers every detail. Each section of your charter should only require a sentence or two. Additionally, charts and bulleted lists will help you present the information in an organized and digestible way.
Create a template
After you realize how helpful a project charter is, you’ll undoubtedly want one for all your team’s projects. Don’t waste time reinventing the wheel. Create a simple template that you can copy and use for all your project charters. Not only will it eliminate some manual effort, but it will also ensure you don’t miss any elements.
Project charter example
Imagine that you and your team are putting together a webinar to generate some new leads. Here’s what a simple project charter could look like.
Company XYZ Project Charter
Project Name: “Building a Positive Company Culture” Webinar
Project Description: A one-hour webinar featuring insights from three employee engagement experts
Business Case: Supports our company-wide goals of:
- Increasing sales by 28% this quarter
- Establishing Company XYZ as a thought leader in the employee engagement space
Project Deliverables:
- Landing page for webinar signups
- One-hour webinar
- Webinar recording for continued lead generation
Project Benefits:
- Boosted reputation
- Lead generation
- Resource we can continue to promote
Project Risks:
- Technical difficulties
- This is our first webinar, and the team lacks this expertise
Project Budget:
Not to exceed $3,000
Project Milestones:
- Landing page launched - October 15, 2020
- Slides completed - October 26, 2020
- Live webinar - November 4, 2020
Project Team Members:
- Project Manager - Thai V.
- Designer - Greta K.
- Webinar Participant/Expert - Jason B.
- Webinar Participant/Expert - Safiya M.
- Webinar Participant/Expert - Rachel C.
- Webinar Host - Tom S.
- Social Media Coordinator - Ander B.
- Email Marketing Coordinator - Nancy R.
To visualize your project charter with all the deliverables and risks, you can make use of a Gantt chart as well.
Create your own project charter with Wrike
Having pre-made templates can be a time-saver when starting a new project, particularly when it comes to standard documents that are essential for every project. Creating a project charter template for your organization eliminates the need to reinvent the wheel whenever a stakeholder or project sponsor presents a new project idea.
Wrike has a diverse selection of templates for different tasks such as creative briefs and sprint planning. Additionally, Wrike empowers users to design their own templates for repeated processes and requirements, such as project charters. By utilizing Wrike’s customizable templates, project managers can quickly draft comprehensive project charters that align with their organization’s objectives and needs.
With Wrike, project planning and execution can be simplified, enhancing efficiency and productivity. Sign up for a free trial to get started today and discover the power of project management with Wrike.