• Project planning |

3 elements every project charter needs

Julia Martins contributor headshot

Getting started on a new project or initiative can be an exciting feeling. But what about the step right before that, when you need to get your project approved?

The project pitching and approval process can feel like a black box if you’ve never done it before. From gathering the right information to presenting it in a way that works for your project stakeholders, you want to make sure you have the materials you need to succeed. One way to do that is with a project charter.

What is a project charter?

A project charter is an elevator pitch of your project objectives, project scope, and project responsibilities in order to get approval from key project stakeholders. In the charter, you should provide a short, succinct explanation of the main elements of your project before you get started. By creating a project charter before getting started on other, more in-depth project planning documents, you can get approval or course-correct if necessary.

A project charter is one of many project planning materials you can create. Here’s how it compares to other project planning elements:

Project charters vs. project plans

A project charter should only include three elements: your project objectives, scope, and responsibilities. Once your charter has been approved, you should then create a project plan. Your project plan builds on your project charter to provide a more in-depth blueprint of the key elements of your project.

There are seven key elements in a project plan:

Success metrics

Stakeholders and roles

Scope and budget

Milestones and deliverables

Timeline and schedule

Project charters vs. project briefs

A  project brief  is a short document that you should create after your project has been officially approved. The brief is a condensed version of your project plan that your project team and stakeholders can refer back to frequently. Your brief, like the charter, provides context about why this project is a good idea, in addition to what you’ll be doing during the project.

A project brief has four parts:

Background information

Project objectives and success criteria

Project timeline

Target audience

Project charter vs. business case

A project charter and  business case  have the same fundamentals: these are both tools to pitch a project to the appropriate stakeholders. The main difference between a project charter and a business case is scope.

A business case is a formal document that explains the benefits and risks of a significant business investment. For example, if you’re pitching a large-scale investment with an external agency, a significant increase in current business practices, or a new product line or service, you’d want to create a business case. Alternatively, if your project needs approval but it’s smaller in scope—for example, a campaign that’s similar to past campaigns or a product launch that fits within your current go-to-market strategy—create a project charter instead.

Do you need a project charter?

There are a variety of project planning tools, and a project charter isn’t always the best one for the job. Here’s when to create one—and when you might be better off creating something else.

Create a project charter  to pitch and get approval for a project. 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. A business case includes additional information and documentation, including the project’s return on investment and any  relevant project risks .

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 .

How to create a project charter

In a project charter, you’ll share project details with key stakeholders in order to get approval to kick off your project. 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. Make sure your project purpose clearly explains why it’s important to work on this project and how this project will support your company goals.

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. To create good project objectives, follow the  SMART method . Make sure your objectives are:

The second key element in your project charter is the project scope. Your project scope statement defines exactly what is and isn’t part of the project. When you draft a project scope, you’re setting boundaries and, more importantly, outlining what you won’t do during the project timeline.

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. If you haven’t already, draft up a brief resource management plan to illustrate how various resources will be allocated during the project.

Project charter examples

[Product UI] Marketing campaign project charter (Project Brief)

Project charter template

When you’re ready to get started, follow this easy-to-use template to create your next project charter.

Project name

Name your project. Make sure this is descriptive enough that most people will understand what you’re working on.

Project manager

Who is the point of contact for this project?

Last revision date

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.

Project purpose

Why are you working on this project?

Project objectives

What deliverables and assets do you plan to achieve by the end of the project?

Project scope

What are the boundaries of your project deliverables? Which initiatives are not included in the project?

Project team and resources

Who is working on this project? Which resources (e.g. people, tools, and budget) are available for this work.

Stakeholders and approvers

Who are the project stakeholders? Who needs to approve the project charter or any project deliverables?

From project charter to project success

Once your project charter has been approved, you can move forward with project planning. As you create additional project planning documents and get started with project management, make sure you are storing all of your project details in a centralized tool that everyone can access.

Naturally, we think Asana is the best tool for the job. With Asana, you can manage team projects and tasks to stay in sync and hit your deadlines. Learn more about the  benefits of project management .

Related resources

project charter assignment

Sales and operations planning (S&OP): A project manager’s guide

project charter assignment

What is stakeholder analysis and why is it important?

project charter assignment

Scope management plan: What is it and how to create one

project charter assignment

7 causes of content calendar chaos—and how to solve them

project-management.com logo.

Popular Insights:

Best Project Management Software

Mind Mapping Software

What is a Project Charter? Complete Guide & Examples

Lauren Good Avatar

Share this Article:

Our content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click links to our partners. Learn more in our  Editorial & Advertising Policy .

In the project lifecycle, numerous types of documentation are essential to keeping things running smoothly, including the project charter. Read on to learn more about what a project charter is, how it’s used, and how to create one.

What Is a Project Charter?

Project charters are compiled after a project proposal has been created and presented to stakeholders. Once that approval has been granted, the project charter, also sometimes called the project plan, acts as the official sign-off to begin work. The document must be signed by a senior leader who controls funding, as the charter provides explicit permission to begin project work and utilize organizational resources—from team members to financing, to technology, and software.

Read more: Project Management Terms and Concepts

Featured Partners

{{ POSITION }}. {{ TITLE }}

{{ TITLE }}

Why Are Project Charters Important?

Project charters are an essential part of the project documentation process, as they provide the proof of approval to begin project work and utilize business resources. The project charter acts as a record of stakeholder approval while documenting essential information about the project itself. Here are just a few of the other important purposes a project charter serves:

Informs the Team

More than just serving a formal need for project documentation, the information contained within the project charter—such as an estimated timeline, key deliverables and objectives, project scope, and more—is essential to team members who are being briefed on the project for the first time. 

Highlights Project Value

The project charter highlights the value of the project itself by tying back the project objectives to overall organizational needs and goals. At a glance, stakeholders, both internal and external, can understand the significance of the project and what outcomes it will achieve. 

Creates a Link to Portfolio Management

Portfolio management measures the success of all of the business’s projects against overall objectives and goals across all departments and areas of business. The project charter establishes a clear link between the project itself and the goals and purpose it will serve in the organization, making it easier to identify successes and areas of improvement in an organization’s portfolio management plans.

Prevents Scope Creep

According to the “Pulse of the Profession” study by the Project Management Institute, 50% of all projects experience scope creep. Over time, scope creep contributes to budget overruns, project delays, and ultimately, poor project outcomes. Project charters help combat scope creep before it happens by clearly defining the project scope and communicating project goals clearly to all project stakeholders. 

Establishes a Timeline

When working on a project, it is essential to adhere to the project timeline, but oftentimes, the project schedule is not relayed to internal or external stakeholders until the actual work begins. In this case, the project charter establishes expectations for the project timeline and sets the groundwork to assign individual project tasks. 

Defines the Criteria for Project Success

To measure the success of a project, you first need clearly defined expectations and a metric to measure the project against. The project charter outlines how stakeholders will determine the success or failure of a project, making it easy for the team to understand the expectations ahead.

Read more: 5 Phases of Project Management

What Information Does the Project Charter Contain?

When drafting the project charter, include information that makes it clear what the project aims to accomplish and how you plan on accomplishing it. While the charter may look slightly different for various projects and teams, anyone reading the document should have a thorough understanding of the project and the plan for achieving project goals by the end of the charter.

Read more: What is Project Management?

How Does a Project Charter Differentiate From a Project Proposal or Plan?

Project Charter: A project charter acts as the official sign-off for project work to begin, covering the essential information about what the project will cover and what it will take to accomplish the project successfully. 

Project Proposal: The project proposal is the document that initially proposes the project to stakeholders and decision-makers, outlining the project from a high-level view. This document is used to pitch the project itself. 

Project Brief: Even shorter than the project charter, the project brief is a general overview that describes the bare amount of key information about the project that someone would need to know. While it may seem extremely similar to the project charter, it is a much more brief and high-level description.

Read more: Project Proposal Templates and Examples

Essential Components of a Project Charter

At a minimum, the project charter should include the essential information about the project and what it will require to be successful:

Business Case

The business case highlights how the project serves the organization through its goals, deliverables, and outcomes. It should tie project objectives back to positive outcomes for the organization, especially concerning business-wide goals and initiatives.

Stakeholders

In project management, the term stakeholder can refer to a few groups of people, primarily including internal decision-makers, the team members working directly on the project, and external stakeholders like investors, customers, or third-party contractors. In simple terms, you can consider stakeholders as anyone with a tie to the project who will need to be updated on the project at some point throughout the project lifecycle, regardless of their role. 

Resources Required

Resources in the project are tools that keep project work moving smoothly, from people to technology to software and even charts and project tools. Additionally, resources consider the financial investment needed to complete a project, whether that’s paying external contractors, upgrading to a new project management software solution, investing in learning opportunities, etc. 

The scope section of the project outlines what ground the project will cover. In essence, this segment should clearly outline what the project work will look like and achieve to prevent scope creep and unclear expectations. 

Deliverables

The deliverables portion outlines exactly what stakeholders can expect from the project in terms of tangible outcomes, whether it’s delivering a new product, a measurable outcome, or even things as small as documents and reports. 

Outlining the objectives for the project defines the goals that the project aims to achieve, holding the team accountable to specific metrics so that progress can be tracked throughout the project lifecycle. 

The timeline portion outlines the key milestones for the project, such as dates when deliverables will be completed, and the larger markers such as when the project should begin and end. 

Potential Risks and Dependencies

The risks and dependencies portion of the project charter should project any potential risks or issues that may arise during the project and any task dependencies that need to be addressed before project work can begin. This also includes any potential dependencies that may occur during the project, for example, if multiple departments are working together on the project, a delay in turning over a deliverable from one team to another can create delays and roadblocks.

FREE Downloadable Visual Project Charter Template

Tips for writing a strong project charter.

  • Explore visuals

Project charters contain a wealth of information, which can be overwhelming to digest at one time. Consider using visual aspects in your project charter in order to break up information and make it easier to understand. For example, when displaying the project timeline, adding a visualization by way of a timeline or Gantt chart view can help readers better understand the information. 

  • Don’t forget the project title

While many overlook it, naming your project is an important part of the project charter, as it establishes project details for the first time and creates referenceable information to fall back on throughout the project lifecycle.

  • Leverage the resources around you

When drafting the project charter, leveraging the existing resources around you can help you better understand the context of the project and draft a stronger charter overall. For example, reviewing past project charter documents from within your organization can help provide valuable information about drafting your charter for a new project. 

  • Lead with the “why”

Understanding the “why” behind your project can not only make it easier to draft the charter but can also help you write more clearly about the project itself. The “why” is a crucial aspect, and without it, drafting the essential information about the project will be a challenge. 

  • Step back and reflect

Before wrapping up the project charter, take a step back and come back to the charter later on with fresh eyes. Drafting and editing the project charter is a significant undertaking, and taking the time to carefully edit the document and review it with a new perspective is essential. 

Tools for Preparing a Project Charter

Before you begin drafting the project charter, gather a few tools that can help make the process easier:

  • Information about similar projects that have been completed

Taking stock of the projects that your organization has completed in the past can make completing the project charter much easier. Understanding how similar projects were structured and managed gives you a baseline understanding of how to construct a charter for a new undertaking. 

  • Planning tools 

Project charters involve a lot of moving parts, and leveraging planning tools can help you organize project details much more easily. Gantt charts, for example, make it easy to map task dependencies while visualizing a larger project timeline against individual tasks and responsibilities. In addition, these types of tools make it easier to present information visually, making it more likely to be received clearly. 

  • Project management software

Project management software is one of the best tools for planning and executing projects. Various features, from task assignments to data reporting, multiple project views, and more make project management software a useful tool that can easily be implemented.

Read more: 10 Best Project Management Software for 2023

Featured Partners: Project Management Software

{{ title }}, who should draft the project charter.

In most cases, the project charter is written by the project manager and sponsored by a high-level executive who initiates and supports the project.

Can the project charter be edited throughout the project lifecycle?

The project charter cannot be edited unless the scope and goals of the project change without terminating the initial project itself. Because the project charter is the kickoff guide to the project, it needs to remain unchanged or else risk altering the project and its scope unintentionally.

What’s the best way to present the project charter to my team?

The best way to introduce a project charter to the team is to host a kickoff meeting. The kickoff meeting allows you to introduce the project in an approachable way where everyone can ask questions as you review key details. While sharing the charter itself gives team members a tangible document to refer to, meeting with them directly gives everyone space to ask questions and connect on a personal level before project work begins.

Sign up for our emails and be the first to see helpful how-tos, insider tips & tricks, and a collection of templates & tools. Subscribe Now

You should also read

5 Best Project Portfolio Management Software in 2024

5 Best Project Portfolio Management Software in 2024

Risk Assessment Matrix: What It Is and How to Use It

Risk Assessment Matrix: What It Is and How to Use It

Project Closure Phase: A Comprehensive Guide

Project Closure Phase: A Comprehensive Guide

Join our newsletter.

Subscribe to Project Management Insider for best practices, reviews and resources.

By clicking the button you agree of the privacy policy

Lauren Good Avatar

Get the Newsletter

You might also like.

Project Management Monitoring & Control Phase Guide

Project Management Monitoring & Control Phase Guide

Anne M. Carroll Avatar

Project Management Execution Phase: A Comprehensive Guide

Project Planning Phase: A Comprehensive Guide

Project Planning Phase: A Comprehensive Guide

Run and collaborate on creative projects more smoothly.

Plan, manage, and track product launches and campaigns.

Stay organized and communicate critical details to teams.

Streamline and scale manufacturing operations.

project charter assignment

See how TeamGantt helps teams like yours meet deadlines, streamline communication.

project charter assignment

Successful marketing project starts with a plan.

Track event details and to-dos.

Scope out roadmaps and manage backlogs.

Manage design, copy, and video work.

Learn all about gantt charts and how to use them to manage projects more easily.

Hear real testimonials from real TeamGantt customers.

project charter assignment

Discover why companies like Amazon , Netflix , and Nike manage their projects with TeamGantt.

How to Write a Project Charter: Template & Examples

project charter assignment

Getting a new project off the ground involves a lot of documentation—from project requirements and scope documents to risk assessments and project plans .

As a project manager, you’re used to sifting through project paperwork. But it’s not always easy for your team and stakeholders to make sense of it all when they’ve got limited time to spend on the details.

That’s where a project charter comes in. 

A project charter acts as a reference guide for successful project delivery so you can get everyone up to speed and on board with the project more quickly.

Let’s take a closer look at what a project charter is, why it’s important, and how to create one for your projects.

What is a project charter, and why is it important?

A project charter is a document that details your project’s goals, benefits, constraints, risks, stakeholders, and even budgets. It may also be referred to as a project brief or project definition document.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project charter as “a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project, and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.”

The purpose of a project charter is to set clear project expectations so you can lead even the largest teams and complex projects to an on-time and under-budget delivery. A project charter also brings benefits like aligning stakeholders and teams to the project’s objectives and clarifying important details that could impact the project.

Project charter vs. project plan: What’s the difference?

Having multiple documents related to your project might sound overwhelming—and it can be! But, every key document plays an important role in project success.

So when should you use a project charter versus a project plan? The simple answer is you should always use both to manage your projects. But let’s take a quick look at the difference between a project charter and a project plan. 

Think of your project charter as the document that explains the what and why of your project, while your project plan outlines the how, when , and who . 

Remember, the purpose of the project charter is to detail your project in its entirety—but at a high level . We’re not talking about tasks and milestones here.

A project charter spells out the details needed to understand a project and its objectives, usually in Word, Excel, Google Docs, or PDF format. It’s delivered early in the project cycle to ensure everyone’s on the same page about goals and deliverables. 

A project plan, on the other hand, is a line-by-line action plan for leading a project to completion once all the details have been approved. It’s typically formatted as a gantt chart with task deadlines and milestones mapped out on a timeline so you can track progress along the way.

How to write a project charter

Ready to develop a project charter framework for your organization? 

To create a project charter for your next project, your first step should be to discuss the project with your team and stakeholders. This will enable you to gather the information needed to execute the project, while also setting expectations around what it will take to get the job done. 

Be sure this initial discussion covers the following project details:

  • Constraints (including deadlines and budgets)

Stakeholders

  • Any other details that will help you truly define your project

Gaining this level of insight and understanding from your team and stakeholders early on will go a long way in helping you maintain alignment throughout the project.

Just like everything else in project management, there’s no single way to write a project charter. The most important thing to remember when creating your charter is to make it easy to read and accessible to anyone involved in your project.

Remember, the charter should be a high-level review of the project, not a turn-by-turn accounting of what will happen. Feel free to use short descriptions—or even bullet points—to help you keep it brief.

Project charter elements & examples

A lot of information goes into a project charter, and it’s up to you to determine which components make sense for the teams and organizations you work with. Here’s a list of key elements you may want to include when writing your project charter. 

Business case

This is a goals-related statement that explains the purpose of your project and why you’re taking it on. The business case not only helps guide project decisions, but also ensures everyone involved in the project is aligned on its purpose. That way you can all hold each other accountable to sticking to that goal.

We wrote this business case statement example for a website redesign project:

The Gantt Museum website (ganttmuseum.org) must be redesigned to help us meet our new, aggressive ticket sales goals and to provide a new online shop experience for visitors who cannot visit in person.

While the business case may state your overarching goals, you might find you need to get more specific about practical goals for your project. 

Writing SMART goals for your project’s initiatives can make it easier to stay on task. This example gives you an idea of how you could work these into your project charter goals:

  • Provide an updated look and feel to align with new branding.
  • Showcase relevant visitor information in an easy-to-access way.
  • Include an online ticketing system to allow visitors to buy tickets around the clock from any location. This new system must contribute an additional 20% in ticketing revenue for the Museum.
  • Leverage an off-the-shelf e-commerce platform to be managed by the Museum shop personnel. This new system must contribute an additional 35% in shop revenue for the Museum.

This section may be optional for you, depending on where you work and the type of project you’re running. But if you deal with project budgets or clients, be crystal-clear about the project’s cost and how it’s broken down. Keeping this information transparent will help guide conversations if and when your budget approaches its max.

In the project charter example below, we’ve broken the budget down by project phase: ‍

$500,000, broken down by phase:

  • Research: $50,000
  • Design: $200,000
  • Development: $250,000

Scope and deliverables

Be sure to define the thing you’ll deliver and the scope associated with it so you can set clear expectations about what will and won’t be included—or executed on—in your project.

Here’s an example of how you might outline a project's scope and deliverables in your project charter:

We’re redesigning and building the following templates:

  • Ticketing page
  • Shop home page
  • Shop item description page

Deliverables include:

  • Wireframes for each page (to be revised up to 3 times)
  • Page designs (to be revised up to 3 times)
  • Coded templates

Resources needed

In this section, you’ll list any people, funds, time, materials, equipment, or additional resources you or the team will need to complete the project. Here’s a sample of resources a website design project might require:

  • Branding work is being done by our partner agency. All files will be required before design kickoff.
  • All photography for the site will be FPO in design. New photography may be required.
  • Museum will purchase licenses for fonts.
  • Museum will need to purchase CMS licenses for staff.
  • Museum will need to hire a CMS trainer and content entry staff.

Don’t worry about fitting a whole plan into your project charter. But it’s a good idea to list out key project milestones with dates and reference your plan in TeamGantt by sharing a view-only link to your gantt chart .

For example, you might structure your project charter milestone schedule like this:

This project is estimated to take 9 months with the following milestone schedule: 

  • October 31, 2021 - Kickoff
  • December 15, 2021 - Research Complete
  • February 28, 2022 - Design Complete
  • April 15, 2022 - Development & CMS Training Complete
  • May 21, 2022 - Content Entry Complete
  • June 30, 2022 - QA Testing Complete, Launch

Risks and issues

Every project carries risk, whether it’s the threat of a critical stakeholder leaving the project, a much-needed asset missing a deadline, or even a hurricane taking out your internet and bringing work to a halt. 

Documenting things that could go wrong in your project charter—like we’ve done in the example below—makes everyone aware of risks from the outset:

  • The stakeholder team has never been part of a website redesign.
  • Most of the content will need to be rewritten, and the effort is unknown.
  • The funding for the e-commerce platform has not yet been approved.

Dependencies

Sometimes one piece of a project can’t start until a previous step is complete. And when a partner’s responsible for that step, you have no control. If that’s the case for your project, you’ve got a rolling list of risks on your hands. 

Make note of any major dependencies in your project charter so you can spotlight potential scheduling issues. Here’s how that might look:

  • If the branding project is not approved on time, it will delay our project.
  • The selection of the Content Management System (CMS) and subsequent licensing is required before development begins.

If you’re working on a project with a team of folks who are responsible for approving your project, you want to be sure they’re present and accounted for. Listing them here will help! 

While you’re at it, you might want to define their roles or at least mention who the “lead” or main approver will be.

This sample project charter keeps the stakeholder list simple:

  • Project sponsor & key point of contact: Sandy Sanderson, EVP, Marketing
  • Don Limon, Director of IT
  • Donna Sumner, Director of Ticketing
  • Bob Burg, Manager, Museum Shop
  • Danielle Della, Senior Writer

Download a free project charter template

Making a project charter may feel like a daunting task, but it really doesn’t have to be. Using a template can help you jump right in and keep things brief so your project charter is quick to create and scan.

Download our free project charter template (Word) and use the examples above to write a project charter of your own. Feel free to adapt this template to your style or organization’s needs.

Remember, a well-written project charter can help you answer and document big project questions and quickly align your team and stakeholders. It’s a small document with a huge purpose, so your best approach is to develop a simple project charter that’s easy to read and useful for everyone involved.

Go from project charter to plan with TeamGantt

Once you’ve got a solid project charter in hand, it’s time to craft your plan! With TeamGantt, you can create an interactive project plan without the tedium.

You’ll have all the features you need to ensure projects finish on time and on budget, including:

  • Drag and drop simplicity
  • Easy team collaboration
  • Gantt chart, list, calendar, and board views
  • Team availability & workload management
  • Planned timeline vs. actual timeline
  • Dedicated mobile app

And it all comes with a simple and intuitive interface that’s easy for anyone to use.

Try TeamGantt for free today!

Facebook

How to write a project charter

Project Charter word cloud

A good project charter can decide whether the project even gets started. It gives authorization for the project to become active, so the project manager needs it before they can access resources. Here’s everything you need to know to make the perfect project charter.

Project charter definition

A project charter sets out the scope, objectives, and people involved in the project. This formal document uses all that information to authorize the project. So the charter lets the project manager use organizational and outsourced resources to complete the project.

Can a project charter be changed?

Like any project document, the charter can be amended and updated. Sometimes, it’s even necessary to meet the project objective and Statement of Work.

The project initiator, sponsor, or Change Control Board has to approve changes. Before the project manager proposes changes to the charter, they need to consider the effect on these:

How to make a project charter

Use these headers to build your charter so it covers all the essential elements:

Introduction – explains the project’s purpose. Includes the project name, a brief description, and the formal authorization.

Project business case, goals and scope – sets out the scope of the project and any unique characteristics.

Success criteria – the critical factors that determine the project’s success. This is a list of deliverables expected on project completion.

Deliverables – more detailed primary project requirements or key deliverables.

Budget – the cost estimate for the project, including information about who can approve expenses, both from the allocated budget. Includes any additional spending the project may require.

Schedule/milestones – a comprehensive schedule with project milestones, or stages, for measuring its progress and success.

Constraints and assumptions – detail the known and unknown parameters of the project.

Summary of risks – summarize any potential or real major threats to the success of the project.

Team and organization – list the people and stakeholders who will work on the project (the project team). Outline their roles and who is appointed the project manager. An organization chart is a good way to show the project team framework.

Approvals – finally, set aside a section for the project’s sponsor/client and stakeholders to record their approval (or disapproval) of the project charter document.

How to present a project charter

It’s important to present the project charter properly to guarantee project approval. Just attaching a PDF or slideshow to an email isn’t really sufficient, but you can do this after a formal presentation.

Create a slideshow and present your project charter to the sponsor, client, or stakeholders in a meeting. Give them time to ask questions. It’s a good idea to include team leads and some team members in the presentation. Here are some presentation tips:

  • Be prepared to adjust your presentation style according to your audience, and tailor it to fit.
  • Pass out 1-2 page printout summaries of the presentation
  • Analyse your audience – who are the primary and technical decision makers? What are their preferences? How do they feel about the project?
  • Expect people to ask questions and talk during the presentation, and be prepared to answer questions prior to the conclusion.
  • Make eye contact with your audience and adopt an open body language style, but avoid extravagant body and hand movements.
  • Avoid reading your presentation from notes in your hand.

Project charter example

project charter assignment

language-selector

Project Charter: Guide with Examples and Template

  • 1.  Project Management Basics
  • 2.  Project Management Methodologies
  • 3.  Project Management Life Cycle
  • 4.  Project Management Software
  • 5.  Team Collaboration Tips
  • 6.  Agile Methodology Basics
  • 7.  Agile Project Management Tools & Techniques
  • 8.  Project Management Frameworks
  • 9.  Resources
  • 10.  Glossary
  • Advanced Terminology
  • Methodologies
  • PM Software Features
  • Basic Terminology
  • Professional Development
  • Agile Project Management

What is a Project Charter?

A project charter is a formal document delineating the project's purpose, scope, stakeholders, objectives, and comprehensive plan. This document should guide all subsequent decisions and actions.

Essentially, a project charter is like a project's roadmap. It communicates what the project is about, who's involved, and how it will be done. It's the go-to guide for all project decisions, helping keep the project on track and aligned with its original goals.

It helps prevent scope creep and budget overruns by providing a written reference throughout the project. It also emphasizes stakeholder consideration, ensuring the project aligns with expectations and standards.

What is a project charter in project management?

In project management, a project charter is the foundation of a successful project, offering clarity and direction to the team and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

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.

As a project timeline reference document, the project charter is there to help you navigate issues that arise proactively. In a sense, it’s to the project manager what a blueprint is to an architect. 

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.

Video preview

Project charter vs. project plan

Easy to confuse, the project charter and project plan share similarities but serve different purposes.

The project charter is a high-level strategic overview that seeks to lay out the terms of the project, along with other key details such as relevant stakeholder information. It provides the parameters within which your team must operate in order for the project to be a success.

The project plan is more of a nuts-and-bolts outline that explains how you’ll go about executing the project on a tactical level. In the project plan, there should be a greater emphasis on specific actions, processes, and workflows that will help you complete your work efficiently and to a high standard.

What’s the purpose of a project charter?

The main reason for putting together a project charter is to set the tone and guidelines for an upcoming project.

A project charter is similar to an essay plan.

Before writing an essay, you would normally:

  • Research to find data that supports your claims
  • Create a skeleton structure for your argument
  • Identify and address reader objections so you can answer the questions that might emerge in the reader’s mind

With a project charter, you would go through a similar process, whereby the objections become obstacles you have to navigate, and the data incorporates all relevant details necessary to complete the project.

Without the benefits of a project charter , you’re forced to fumble your way through the project, finding solutions for emerging problems on the fly.

The high-level overview of a project charter puts you on the front foot and equips you to take proactive action, rather than allowing yourself to get blindsided by problems along the way.

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, project objectives and constraints.

First, outline what your main objectives are for the project and identify potential constraints or obstacles that could prevent you from achieving them.

When considering constraints, think about your available budget, team member capacity, and other factors such as stakeholder requirements.

Map out the estimated start and end dates for the project, along with any milestones you should hit along the way. You can then translate this information to a dynamic timeline model in your project management software to track progress in real time.

Identify and list every stakeholder with a vested interest in the project and its success. Detail what their role is in relation to the project, what you might need from them, and how you can contact them.

Create a plan for mitigating or avoiding risks that pose a threat to the completion of your project. First, identify what they might be, then figure out what the best course of action would be for each.

Consider and describe how the project will positively impact:

  • Stakeholders

Be as specific as possible, as it’s important to bear the benefits in mind as you work through the project to prioritize effectively.

Write a high-level financial overview in which you break down your budget for the project, factoring in the funds available and any anticipated costs. This can help you avoid going over budget but also provide stakeholders with a summary of the project finances.

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?

Once you’ve finished writing your project charter, you should have a clear process in place for making sure your execution goes to plan.

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 .

Take your project charters to the next level

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 template

As an alternative to crafting your own template, we have prepared a free project charter template that you can use. In this template, you can find all the key elements of a project charter and modify the components according to your scope and needs.

You can download our free project charter template below, available in a variety of formats:

  • Wrike’s Project Charter Template in PDF format
  • Wrike’s Project Charter Template in Microsoft Word format
  • Wrike’s Project Charter Template in Google Docs format (please make a copy)

To help you further with the process, we will now move on to the project charter examples.

Project charter examples

As a first 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.

undefined

As a second example, imagine that your company is launching a mobile app for time management. What would the project charter look like?

Company ABC Project Charter

Project Name: Launching an Innovative Mobile App for Time Management

Project Description: Developing and launching a mobile app that allows users to manage their time effectively using AI-powered features

Business Case: Supports the following company-wide goals:

  • Expanding the product portfolio in the productivity tools market
  • Establishing company presence as an innovator in AI-driven time management solutions
  • Fully developed mobile app for iOS and Android
  • App store listings and promotional content
  • User guides and tutorial videos
  • Post-launch customer support plan
  • Increased market share in the industry
  • Improved brand reputation as a technology innovator
  • Revenue growth from app sales and subscriptions

Project Risks:

  • Potential delays in the launch due to technical challenges
  • Competition from existing apps in the market

Project Budget: $50,000

Project Milestones:

  • App prototype completed - May 1, 2021
  • Beta testing initiated - June 15, 2021
  • App store listings and promotional content prepared - July 20, 2021
  • Official app launch - August 1, 2021
  • Project Manager - Kim L.
  • Lead Developer - Raj P.
  • UI/UX Designer - Fiona S.
  • QA Tester - Martin H.
  • Marketing Coordinator - Lisa T.
  • Technical Writer - Aaron M.
  • Customer Support Specialist - Diane W.

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.

Further reading:

  • 10 Steps to a Kickass Project Kickoff: A Checklist for Project Managers
  • Project Management Basics: 6 Steps to a Foolproof Project Plan
  • 10 Reasons the Death Star Project Failed (Infographic)

Basic Project Management

  • Project Charter
  • Project Management Stakeholders
  • What is a Project?
  • Work Breakdown Structure
  • Project Objectives
  • Project Baseline
  • Project Management Scheduling
  • Project Management Work Packages
  • Project Management Scope
  • Scope Creep

Advanced Project Management

  • What is PERT?
  • Network Diagram
  • Risk Management
  • Cost Estimation
  • Feasibility Study
  • Monte Carlo Analysis
  • Project Integration
  • Cost Management
  • PMI Project Management
  • What To Do With Certification
  • Certification
  • Become Certified
  • PMP Certification
  • Best Certification

Software Features

  • Critical Success Factors
  • Capacity Planning
  • User Role Access Permissions
  • Time Tracking
  • Budget Tracking
  • Request Forms
  • Work Assignments
  • Version Control
  • Dependency Managements
  • Project management Milestones
  • Project Management Software
  • Project Management Tools
  • Project Management System
  • Gantt Charts

How to Create a Winning Project Charter: Your Blueprint for Success

pop-out-icon

One of the very first steps in the phases of the project management lifecycle is developing the project charter. It helps inform everyone in the team what they are in charge of and what needs to be done.

Let’s define the project charter and discuss how to create one. We have added some useful project charter templates that will help you kick-start your project. Customize them to your liking and export them as images or SVGs to add to presentations or documents.

What is a Project Charter?

Why use a project charter, when to use a project charter, who can benefit from a project charter, benefits of using a project charter, what to consider before developing a project charter, how to develop a project charter.

  • A Visual Project Charter

Project Charter vs Project Plan

The project charter is a formal document that lays out the project vision, scope, objectives, project team and their responsibilities, key stakeholders and how it will be carried out or the implementation plan. It is also known as the project statement and project definition report. Usually used at the beginning of a project, the project charter communicates the project’s objectives and expectations to all stakeholders, including the project team, sponsors, and other interested parties.

The project charter is also helpful in defining the project manager’s authority level and the project’s direction.

A project charter typically includes the following:

  • The project overview: briefly describes the project, its purpose, and expected benefits.
  • The project scope: outlines the project’s boundaries, including what is included and excluded.
  • Project goals and objectives: outlines the specific goals and objectives the project is expected to achieve.
  • Project timeline: a schedule of the project, including milestones and deadlines.
  • Project budget: outlines the estimated costs and the resources that will be required to complete the project.
  • Project stakeholders: a list of all stakeholders involved and their roles and responsibilities.
  • Project risks and assumptions: outlines the potential risks and assumptions associated with the project and how they will be managed.

There are several reasons as to why you should consider kick-starting your project with a project charter. A few are given below.

A project charter

  • Describes the purpose and the outcomes of the project
  • Ensure clarity of project goals and objectives
  • Legally authorizes the start of a project
  • Helps keep track of project deadlines
  • Defines roles and responsibilities of each member/stakeholder
  • Helps identify constraints and risks and define preventive measures
  • Outlines a general overview of the budget
  • Provides a useful framework for decision-making
  • Improves communications
  • Helps align the project goals with the interests of the stakeholders

A project charter should be used during the planning phase at the beginning of a project. It is usually the first formal document created when beginning a project and serves as the basis for all subsequent planning and execution activities.

The project charter should be created or developed before any detailed planning or major project resources are committed. This is because the project charter helps ensure everyone understands the project’s goals, objectives, and scope. It is also helpful in identifying possible risks along with any associated strategies to manage them.

Regardless of the size or complexity of the project, the project charter should be used. It is especially helpful for projects that are large or complicated, have many stakeholders, or have a lot of risks or uncertainty.

In summary, a project charter should be used:

  • At the beginning of a project, during the planning phase.
  • Before any detailed planning takes place and before significant project resources are committed.
  • Ensure that everyone involved has a common understanding of the project’s goals, objectives, and scope.
  • To identify potential risks associated with the project and outline strategies for managing them.
  • For all types of projects, regardless of their size or complexity.

It is important to note that any individual or organization responsible for initiating or managing a project can use a project charter. This includes but is not limited to,

  • Project managers are responsible for overseeing the planning and execution of a project.
  • Project sponsors include senior executives or managers who provide the funding and resources necessary.
  • Project team members who are responsible for executing the project tasks and delivering the outcomes.
  • Other stakeholders include customers, suppliers, regulators, and other interested parties. They can use the project charter to understand the project’s goals, objectives, and scope.

Anyone involved in initiating, planning, or executing a project can use a project charter to ensure a project’s success. As such, there are numerous advantages to developing a project charter. Some of these benefits are detailed below.

  • Provides a clear understanding of the project’s goals and objectives.
  • Aligns the project with the organization’s strategic goals, ensuring that the project’s outcomes are consistent with the organization’s overall direction.
  • Helps to manage project risks by narrowing down potential risks and relevant strategies to mitigate them.
  • Defines all stakeholders' roles and responsibilities, which helps ensure that everyone knows what is expected of them.
  • Improve communication by serving as a communication tool that helps ensure everyone is on the same page and clearly understands each aspect of the project.
  • Provides a framework for decision-making throughout the project’s lifecycle, which ensures that decisions align with the project’s goals, objectives, and scope.
  • Increases the likelihood of project success. It ensures the project is completed successfully, on time, and within budget.

Be clear on the purpose of the team charter. Is it to improve communications, establish team guidelines or set expectations? Gaining a clear understanding of the purpose can inform and help guide the creation of the project charter.

Members of the team

Get to know who will be part of the team. This is important to ensure that all key stakeholders are included when creating the team charter.

Team dynamics

Understanding the team dynamics, including any conflicts or tensions. Addressing these issues ahead of time can help to improve team performance.

Project goals and scope

Have a clear understanding of the project goals, objectives, and scope. The project charter should be aligned with these goals and objectives, while the project scope should have the deliverables and the timeline. Establish guidelines as to how the team will work within the scope.

Communication

Establish guidelines for communication within the team, including how often the team will meet, how the progress will be reported, and how conflicts will be resolved.

Decision-making

Make sure to establish guidelines for decision-making within the team as well. Include how decisions will be made, who will be responsible for making them, etc.

Metrics and evaluation

Determine the metrics for measuring the team’s progress and success. This should include identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and establishing a process for evaluating the team’s performance.

Here we’ll look into how to create a project charter while identifying its key elements. To create a project charter, follow the below steps.

  • Identify the project vision
  • Identify the stakeholders and the customers
  • Create an organizational chart
  • Define project milestones
  • Create a resource plan
  • Set the budget for the project
  • List down the dependencies, constraints, and risks
  • Lay out the implementation plan

Let’s take a look at each of the above steps in detail.

1. Identify the Project Vision

The vision of the project is expressed through its end goal and its purpose. It can be divided into,

Scope: Explain the boundaries of the project in terms of project goals, deliverables, costs, deadlines and the work to be done. Defining the project scope early in the project lifecycle is important as it will impact the project cost and the schedule.

Objectives: When setting objectives, make sure that they adhere to the SMART criteria, or in other words that they are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.  Taking into consideration the overall goals of the organization, set about 5 objectives to be accomplished by the end of the project.

Deliverables: List down the deliverables that will be produced at the end of each successful accomplishment of an objective.

2. Identify the Stakeholders and the Customers

Stakeholders are the individuals who have a key stake or interest in the successful completion of the project. They could be within or outside of the company and include those who fund your project as well as the team members and clients.

You can use a stakeholder map like the one below to categorize the stakeholder and make the information at your hand more presentable and easy-to-understand.

Stakeholder Map

3. Create an Organizational Chart

Now that you have identified the project team, clarify their responsibilities.

Use an org chart to list down their names, roles, and responsibilities. At the same time, you can highlight the reporting relationships among the member with the help of connecting lines.

Organizational Chart Template

4. Define Project Milestones

Milestones represent important events within the project lifecycle and include the start and end dates of the project, the successful completion of key deliverables, etc.

Project Schedule Template

5. Create a Resource Plan

List down all the resources that you need for the project; equipment, machines, people, materials, etc. This can help you when allocating your budget.  

6. Set the Budget for the Project

List down the expenses your organization will have to bear in order to carry out the plan. As these expenses may change during the project, you can make rough estimations. Also, note down the person who will be responsible for authorizing the approval of the expenditure.

7. List Down the Dependencies, Constraints, and Risks

Dependencies:   Identify and list down project dependencies, or the activities that will have an impact on the initiation or the completion of another task.

Constraints: Figure out the factors that would hinder the progression of the project outcomes. For example, lack of resources or time.

Risks: Risks could occur during any stage of the project lifecycle. It’s important that you identify these beforehand and have taken precautions. Here are some great risk management techniques that would come in handy here.

8. Lay Out the Implementation Plan

This is where you will put together an action plan , highlighting the key dates or milestones.

Action Plan Template

Visualize Your Project Charter

Usually, a project charter spans for 5-6 pages. This is one of the major reasons why they get overlooked in the project management process. An easier way to write a project charter that everyone can quickly read and understand, with minimal effort is through visualization.

Project charters that incorporate graphic elements like the ones below help you bring together all project charter elements onto one page. They are easy-to-read and visually pleasing.

The following are a few examples of how you can visualize your project charters. You can edit them online to add or remove elements and customize them based on your project’s needs. Download them as SVGs or as images to add to presentations, websites, company wikis, documents, etc.

Project Charter Template

The project charter is a high-level initiation document that consists of no more than two pages. It lists down the project objectives, scope, vision, team and their responsibilities and stakeholders.

Project plan on the other hand, is a detailed document that describes how to accomplish the project objectives. It elucidates the project deliverables, action plan, the required resources and milestones.

What Are Your Thoughts on the Guide?

Throughout the project lifecycle, the project charter plays an essential role in keeping things on track. In this guide, we have covered what is a project charter, how to create one along with some editable project charter templates.

Any best practices you follow when creating a project charter? Do share them with our readers in the comments section below.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

FAQs About the Project Charter

  • Not involving key stakeholders when creating the project charter
  • Being too vague or too detailed
  • Failing to clearly define the project objectives and scope
  • Not establishing clear roles and responsibilities
  • Not considering risks and constraints

More Related Articles

What is Project Baseline in Project Management?

Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

Breaking Down the Elements of a Project Charter

By Kate Eby | May 16, 2022

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

A project charter describes the broad details of a proposed project, including key information. We’ll explain what’s in the six main sections and who is responsible for each. 

We’ll cover the six main elements of a project charter and what each of those sections should include , as well as provide expert advice for pulling it together.

What Should Be Included in a Project Charter?

A project charter includes an overview, the scope, an approximate schedule, an outline of necessary resources, and an estimated budget. A project manager generally writes the charter. Project sponsors approve it. 

Nick Vashkevich

“As a rule, the project’s sponsors are responsible for creating the charter,” says Nick Vashkevich, the Head of Services at Akveo . “However, they usually delegate the duty to project managers who define objectives, create a roadmap, and distribute responsibilities within the team. It’s a good idea to show the final version to stakeholders and sponsors to assess the project’s budget resources. Additionally, the stakeholders will help specify the deliverables, goals, and success criteria for your project before you start.”

Typically, a project charter should answer questions such as the following:

  • What will this project accomplish?
  • How much time and money is the project expected to cost?
  • What are the benefits of project completion?
  • Who is in charge of the project?
  • What is the project’s priority level?

project charter assignment

“A good project charter is clear and contains adequate information that can propel the project forward. It should be simple enough that everyone can understand it,” says Will Cannon , the Founder of Signaturely .  

For more information about project charters and why you might need one, read our guide to project charters .

How Many Elements Are There in Project Charter?

A number of elements are included in a project charter. The sections vary by individual project and company needs. A charter generally includes a title, description, high-level estimate of necessary budget and resources, and who is responsible for the project.

Project charters may also include information such as communication and visibility plans , links to project dashboards, and shared resource spaces. They can also feature risk statements and assessments , relationships to other proposed or ongoing projects, return on investment (ROI) and sales forecast information, and future plans.

What Are the 6 Main Parts of a Project Charter?

The six main parts of a project charter are an overview, an outline of the project’s scope, an approximate schedule, a list of anticipated risks, an estimated budget, and a list of key stakeholders. 

  • Overview: Outline what the project entails and what it should accomplish. Identify dependencies on other projects. Be sure to include how you will measure its success.
  • Scope: Provide a summary of what’s within the project’s scope, and just as important, what is not.
  • Schedule: Build a rough schedule with estimates for milestones and deliverables. 
  • Risks: Highlight any anticipated risks or potential roadblocks.
  • Budget: Create a rough budget that lists the resources needed to complete the project.
  • Stakeholders: Make a list of key stakeholders, their titles, and basic contact information.

To learn more about how to piece these elements together, read our guide to writing a project charter.

What Are the Contents of a Project Charter?

A project charter should always include an overview, an outline of scope, an approximate schedule, a budget estimate, anticipated risks, and key stakeholders. Each of these sections should be brief, but as thorough as possible.

“Keep in mind a project charter is meant to provide a high-level overview of your project rather than a detailed breakdown. Only a few sentences should be required for each section,” says Cannon.

Project Overview

A project overview has a descriptive title, a summary of the problems the project will address, and how you’ll achieve it. Add any links to project dashboards and team portals for easy access to ongoing status.

Give your project a descriptive name. The title should provide a high-level description of the project’s goal. 

Next, write a brief project description that highlights its purpose, priority level, any major goals and milestones, and any dependencies on past or ongoing projects. You should also mention the specific project management methodologies you will use, such as Agile , Kanban , or Scrum . 

“Include information on how you will track task status, documentation, result delivery, system deployment rules, teamwork methodology, and meetings,” suggests Akveo’s Vashkevich. Read this guide for creating charters for projects using Agile methodologies to learn more about this practice.

The overview is a good place to leave links to any relevant project dashboards and team portals. The earlier you set these up, the quicker your team can start using them to their advantage and the easier it is for stakeholders to monitor the project’s progress.

Project Scope

State everything that is included in the project’s scope and, just as important, the things that are not. It is also important to define how you will measure your project’s success . 

“This section should also include points and criteria that indicate the project’s successful accomplishment,” says Vashkevich. 

These can be ROI projections, percent increases in sales, fixes to a known issue, or many other factors, depending on the type of project. This element is crucial; if you do not set terms for success, you cannot guarantee a move toward continuous improvement .

Estimated Project Schedule

A project schedule should reflect the time it will take your team to finish the work, not how long you want it to take. Now is the opportunity to build in extra time, so unforeseen emergencies don’t derail your project.

Andrew Dale

Use your team as a resource to determine how long it will take to complete project tasks. “Gather your work team and other stakeholders before creating a job breakdown structure. Although you are ultimately accountable for the work breakdown structure as the business owner, the workgroup is required to establish which tasks are critical, how they are linked, and how long each will take. The last thing you want is to plan on a vital action taking two days, only to have your team tell you later that it can't be done,” warns Andrew Dale, Technical Director at CloudTech24 .

Dale continues, “Alternatively, you may realize that what you thought was a week-long assignment can be completed in half the time with an innovative strategy you would never have discovered on your own. Involve stakeholders from outside the work team to gain their support and get the client or customer to sign off as well,”

Anticipated Risks

Describe any potential risks that the project may encounter. Risk assessment is critical in anticipating challenges and addressing them before they become insurmountable and ultimately make your project run behind schedule. 

To learn more about how to identify and avoid risks, read our guide to project risk management .

Estimated Project Budget

Prepare an estimated budget for your project from start to finish. Be sure to include estimates for physical project elements, labor time and cost, and any additional resources you may need. Your budget should always include room for unforeseen events and emergencies, which can increase project costs dramatically if they arise. 

“A project manager who underestimates the need for human resources, for example, can directly lead to cost overruns,” explains Dale. “In this example, if a project requires more labor than originally envisioned, or if a specialty or talent not found in the organization must be outsourced, the entire cost of the project may increase. Furthermore, if a project manager allocates tasks to employees that are unsuited for specific project stages, the work may take longer to complete, or the quality may be compromised and the procedures repeated by someone else, resulting in cost overruns for labor.”

List of Key Stakeholders

List all stakeholders with their roles and responsibilities. “A clear definition of goals, roles, and responsibilities eliminates confusion among the team and management,” says Vashkevich. 

Consider creating a communication plan , and providing a link to that information. Creating this plan at the project’s outset ensures that preferred contact frequency and communication style are available to everyone.

Once you complete the project charter, be sure to add a section for project approval by sponsors. “When the charter is written well, it assists executives in recognizing the project's business worth. They can reference the charter at any time to see how well the project fits within the company's overall strategy,” says Cannon.When you’re ready to create your own project charter, check out our free project charter template and guidelines .

Easily Share and Manage the Elements of a Project Charter with Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

how to write a project charter

How to write a winning project charter

Reading time: about 6 min

What is a project charter in project management?

A project charter is a document that formalizes a project and gives the project manager authority over the project. Project charters act as a contract, holding everyone accountable for their roles and responsibilities.

If you work in operations or project management, you work tirelessly to establish the most efficient ways to accomplish tasks and maintain quality. However, before you can institute a new process or make significant changes to a current process, you need to get approval from stakeholders and get everyone else on board with your vision. You need a project charter.

As you put together your project charter contents, you’ll likely have questions, particularly if your company doesn’t offer a standard form or template to fill out. Find the answers to the most common questions below, and learn how to create a project charter that wows your stakeholders.

Steps to writing a project charter

  • Choose a project name
  • Identify the purpose, objective (goal), and project specification
  • Set a budget
  • Define deliverables
  • Assess scope and risks
  • Create a timeframe or milestones
  • List key stakeholders
  • Layout team roles and responsibilities  

project team charter example

What is a project charter?

A project management charter states the scope and objectives of a project, as well as the people who will participate in it. You may also hear it called a project definition report or project statement. Project managers should use this document to:

  • Authorize the project.
  • Serve as a baseline throughout the project and provide shared understanding.
  • Act as a contract, holding all participants accountable for their roles and responsibilities.

Your charter is the unquestionable source for details related to the project. It usually remains short but may link to more detailed documents.

Project charter vs. project plan

A project charter is a concise, high-level document outlining the basic goals and scope of the project. It serves as the foundation for your project plan, which goes into more detail on how to execute the objectives laid out in the charter. In other words, the project charter guides the project plan and execution. 

How to write a project charter

If your organization doesn’t have a project charter template, you are free to include the information you find most beneficial. The more thorough your project charter, the more convincing it will be and the better a reference it’ll become. Every charter should include some variation on the following categories.

Project name

Name your project, and make the title as specific as you can. A project name like “HR Initiative” or “Software Update” doesn’t describe why you would like to implement this project and isn’t easy to differentiate from other project charters. Titles like “New Company Wellness Program” or “Software Update to Improve UX for Mobile Payments” define your goal right away. 

Purpose, objective (goal), and project specification

These sections should present your business case and explain: 

  • Why the project was proposed, what pain points it will alleviate, and what impact it will have on the organization
  • What the project will entail
  • What you plan to accomplish with this project and how it fits in with larger organizational goals
  • What needs to happen so it works and how it needs to perform

If you haven’t already done so earlier in the project charter, explain how much the project will cost and where the money will come from. This section could also list any additional resources needed to execute your plan.

Deliverables

What product, service, or result will you deliver when you finish the project? Since project charters are more flexible, you could include information in this section about your measurements for success in this project. How will you determine whether you have accomplished your goal? Which metrics will you use?

Scope and risks

project charter assignment

Get prepared by implementing a risk assessment process.

Timeframe or milestones

Show when you plan to accomplish each stage of the project. The anticipated start and end dates are the most important pieces of information in this section, but a full timeline will give more context.

project charter assignment

Learn more on how to incorporate milestones in your project management strategy.

Learn more on how to incorporate milestones in your project management strategy. Read now

Key stakeholders

While project charters are internal documents, you’ll likely be working with and report to external stakeholders, such as clients but also other project managers or teams in your company. Completing a stakeholder analysis and listing these individuals in the project charter keeps you and your team accountable to the people affected by the project.

Team roles and responsibilities

List the people involved in this project and their roles. Many project charter examples simply list the individual’s title or team, but if that information doesn’t define their responsibilities enough, you could reference a more specific document with the breakdown of responsibilities.

basic project charter

Ways to develop a project charter

Now that you understand what goes into a project charter, here is some additional direction to create a project charter with little hassle and with increased power to persuade and inform stakeholders. 

Make it visual

Your stakeholders will read your document at least once, even if it merely contains a wall of text. However, images or design elements will make your defense stand out and make it easier for people to refer back to key parts of the documents later on.

Separate the different sections of your charter with boxes or accentuated headers for better readability. Then, see which parts of your document would be easier to scan or digest as a visual. For many project charters, the milestones section makes the most sense to convert.

Create a timeline or a Gantt chart in Lucidchart to show the milestones of your project. Take a look at our Gantt chart alternatives as well.

timeline example

As mentioned previously, your project charter could also reference other documents. If it seems inappropriate to include your process flow or a breakdown of team responsibilities within the charter, build these diagrams separately and add a note or link.

action plan template

Make it collaborative

You might need to print out your charter to present later, but while you put it together, keep this document in Google Drive or another program where multiple people can view and edit it. Then the teams who will see the largest impact from this project can put in their two cents before you present to other stakeholders.

Whatever format you choose, make sure to share your project charter with everyone who plays a significant role once you finalize and start your project.

When you add visuals using Lucidchart, you can take advantage of our integrations with Google, Atlassian, and Office 365. Download an add-on, and insert your diagrams seamlessly into your documents.

If you submit project charters frequently, consider these tips and put together your own project charter template!

project charter assignment

Sign up for Lucidchart and start your project charter now.

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

Related articles

project charter assignment

Turn your ideas into real change when you use Lucidchart. We'll walk you through some key steps of scoping and planning a project and link to some helpful templates that will help you get started right away. 

project charter assignment

Project planning can help optimize work time to make more significant strides in your project journey. Learn how to create a project plan today.

Bring your bright ideas to life.

or continue with

The Ultimate Guide to Project Charters: Templates, Examples, and Why You Need One

A project charter is a critical project management document that serves as the foundation for any project. This comprehensive guide will provide you with everything you need to know about project charters including templates, examples, reasons why every project needs one, and a deep dive into how to write an effective charter.

A project charter is a short document that outlines the purpose, objectives, scope, timeline, budget, roles and responsibilities for a project. It formally authorizes the project and provides a high-level view of the goals and deliverables. A well-written charter helps set clear expectations and keeps the project focused throughout its life cycle.

In this ultimate guide, you’ll learn what to include in your project charter, tips for writing an effective charter, templates to use, and real-world examples. With the right charter, you can set your project up for success from the very beginning.

What is a Project Charter and Why Do You Need One?

A project charter is a formal document that details the scope, objectives, and people involved in a project. It authorizes the project manager to use organizational resources to complete the project. A charter serves as a contract between the project sponsor and the project team.

The project charter is developed in the starting phase of the project management process and once complete indicates the official start of the project. It is a project planning document that sells the project to stakeholders by providing a high-level view of what the project is and how it aligns with business objectives.

Every project needs a charter because it clearly outlines the goals, deliverables, milestones, roles, responsibilities and authority required to successfully manage the project. A well-defined charter helps get a project started on the right foot and keeps it on track through delivery of the objectives.

Key Benefits of Creating a Project Charter

There are many benefits to developing a detailed project charter:

Defines the project purpose and goals - The charter captures the high-level information about why the project is important and what it aims to accomplish. It documents the business needs, objectives, and measures of success.

Outlines project requirements and scope - It describes the boundaries of the project, key deliverables, and what will and will not be included. It helps define the scope of work.

Provides project justification - It explains the needs and reasons for undertaking the project. This justification helps gain buy-in and approval.

Documents project approval - Having sponsor sign-off authorizes the project manager to proceed with planning. It represents an agreement between the sponsor and team.

Assigns project roles and responsibilities - The charter identifies the sponsor, project manager, team members, stakeholders and defines their roles and responsibilities.

Sets the project budget and timeline - It identifies budget estimates and resources needed as well as outlining the timeline and key milestones for completion.

Defines risks and assumptions - Potential issues, constraints, uncertainties and planning assumptions are called out upfront.

Acts as a reference document - This document can be referred back to throughout the project to guide decisions and settle disputes. It keeps the project focused through execution and closure.

In summary, the project charter sets the stage for project planning and execution by providing critical information upfront including deliverables, milestones, roles, responsibilities, risks and measures of success. Investing time to write a complete charter gives your project the best chance of achieving its goals.

How to Write an Effective Project Charter: Tips and Recommendations

Writing a robust project charter may take time up front but saves effort down the road by setting clear expectations. Follow these tips for creating a high-quality charter:

Use a template - Start with a pre-built project charter template rather than creating one from scratch. Templates include all the standard sections.

Describe the goals and objectives - Be specific about what the project aims to achieve and how accomplishments will be measured. Get agreement from the sponsor.

Define the scope clearly - Document what is included and excluded from the project. List major deliverables and work products. This helps avoid scope creep later on.

Identify milestones and schedule - Include major phases, timeline, start and end dates. This will guide project execution.

Specify resource requirements - Outline the staffing, equipment, and costs needed to complete the work. Define budget and how variances will be handled.

Assign roles and responsibilities - Identify project sponsor, steering committee, stakeholders, team members and clearly define their individual roles.

Document risks and assumptions - Call out potential issues, uncertainties, constraints and planning assumptions upfront so they can be managed proactively.

Keep it short but thorough - The charter should be 1-2 pages maximum. Include enough detail without getting bogged down.

Get formal approval and sign-off - Have the sponsor and key stakeholders review and sign-off on the charter before kickoff.

Use as a baseline document - Refer back to the charter regularly to keep the project on track and aligned to the original intent.

Following a process and leveraging a template makes creating a project charter straightforward. Getting buy-in on scope and risk is crucial upfront to prevent issues later on.

Project Charter Templates You Can Use

Rather than drafting a charter from scratch, start with pre-built templates. Here are some excellent (and free!) project charter templates to choose from:

Free Project Charter Template from ProjectManagement.com

This comprehensive, 9-page template covers everything you need in a charter document. Sections include project purpose, requirements, scope, milestones, costs, risks, and more. Easy to customize using Word.

Project Charter Template from PM Solutions

A nicely designed Word template that includes an example charter. Has sections for vision, objectives, scope, risks, roles, and approval signatures.

Simple Project Charter Template

From the Method123 project management website, this basic 1-page template is great if you want a streamlined charter. It still covers goals, deliverables, resources, and risks.

Free Project Charter PowerPoint Template

Rather than Word, try this PPT template. It has sample slides with sections to tailor for your project charter presentation.

Project Management Institute (PMI) Charter Template

A 2-page charter template provided by the Project Management Institute. Follows leading PM practices.

The best advice is to choose an existing template that fits your project size, complexity and organization. Customize it with specifics for your initiative to create a robust charter quickly.

Real-World Project Charter Examples

Seeing actual charters can provide ideas for your own projects. Here are a few examples across different industries:

IT/Software Project Charter Example

This sample charter is for an IT project to implement a new system. It includes sections covering business needs, scope, costs, resources, milestones, risks, requirements and measures of success.

Construction Project Charter Example

For construction projects, the charter covers bid requirements, site plans, materials, equipment, deliverables, inspections, costs, schedule, risks, and stakeholder approvals.

Business Project Charter Example

This sample outlines a new product launch including goals, timeline, budget, risks, requirements, assumptions and measures of success.

Design Project Charter Example

For creative teams, the charter focuses on objectives, deliverables, reviews, approvals, requirements, risks, resources and budget required.

Simple Project Charter Example

A 1-page charter covering scope, timeline, risks, roles, and sign-off. Useful for small, low-complexity projects.

Reviewing examples from your industry helps generate ideas on structuring your own project charter. Look for templates and samples to use as a starting point.

10 Essential Sections to Include in Your Project Charter

The best project charters include these key elements:

1. Project Purpose/Justification

Business needs and problems the project aims to solve

Reasons for undertaking the project

Benefits and rewards for completing the project

2. Goals and Objectives

The desired outcomes of the project

Success criteria and how accomplishments will be measured

Specific metrics that define success

3. Project Scope

What is included in and excluded from the project

Major deliverables, work products, and requirements

Project boundaries and limitations

4. Milestones and Schedule

Key phases and timeline for completion

Project start and end dates

High level roadmap and stages

5. Cost Estimate and Budget

Project budget, projected costs, and approved funding

Expense approval requirements

Guidelines for handling budget overages

6. Roles and Responsibilities

Project sponsor, steering committee, manager, team members

Authority of project manager

Assignment of areas to team members

7. Risks and Assumptions

Potential issues, uncertainties, constraints

Planning assumptions that may impact the work

Ways risks will be managed

8. Approval and Sign-off

Formal sign-off by project sponsor

Signatures from stakeholders

Approval to commence project work

9. Change Management Plan

Process for handling changes to scope or charter

Role of change control board

Thresholds for approval

10. Communications Plan

How project status will be shared and reported

Frequency of team meetings and stakeholder updates

Using a template ensures you cover these key elements. Adjust and customize the sections to fit your specific project situation and organization.

Helpful Tips for Writing Your Project Charter

Keep these tips in mind as you draft your project charter:

Involve the project sponsor early - Work with the sponsor to define the goals, scope, risks, and metrics. Get their input on the charter draft.

Conduct a kickoff meeting - Hold a meeting with sponsors, stakeholders to review the charter together.

Keep it short but thorough - Focus on high-level information. Leave deep details for the project plan.

Define specific, measurable goals - Include quantifiable targets and success criteria to track progress.

Document assumptions and risks - Identify potential issues, constraints, dependencies that could impact the work.

Specify required resources - Include needs for staffing, equipment, materials and supplies.

Assign responsibilities clearly - Note who is accountable and responsible for each area to prevent confusion.

Leave room for updates - Revisit and update the charter as the project matures and progresses.

Secure formal sign-off - Obtain sponsor authorization and stakeholder buy-in before starting.

Investing time up front to create a detailed charter sets your project up for success. Use the charter as a guidepost for decision-making throughout the project life cycle.

Key Takeaways and Next Steps

To summarize, the charter is an essential document that formally authorizes the project and directs the work from initiation through closure. Here are some key takeaways:

The charter documents goals, scope, timeline, budget, risks, roles and success metrics

It serves as the contract between the sponsor and project team

Using a template saves time and ensures best practices

Conduct a thorough kickoff meeting to review the charter

Revisit and update the charter as the project progresses

Secure sign-off from sponsors and key stakeholders

The best way to get started is to download a template, customize it for your needs, and meet with your sponsor and stakeholders to review and finalize the charter. This upfront foundation helps ensure your project finishes smoothly and successfully while meeting business objectives.

With an authorized project charter in place, you can confidently move forward into the planning phase and rest of the project management process.

  • Contact sales

Start free trial

Get your free

Project Charter Template

Use this free Project Charter Template for Word to manage your projects better.

project charter assignment

This project charter template allows you to document all the general information about your project such as its scope, stakeholders, deliverables, goals and objectives, among other things. Once you clearly identify those, you can then build out task lists as well as resource, financial and quality plans to outline the scope of work ahead. Your project charter is an important document because it provides an easy-to-understand overview of your project so that everyone involved is on the same page.

What Is a Project Charter?

As defined by the Project Management Institute in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) book, a project charter “documents the high-level information on the project” to ensure a common understanding by the stakeholders of the project deliverables, milestones and the roles and responsibilities of the project management team.

Why You Need a Project Charter

There’s a reason for initiating a project, and the project charter is the document in which you outline those reasons. You also include how the project plan and project team is going to be structured to meet the goals of the project, so it is a success.

Some of the things described in a project charter are the vision, objectives, scope and deliverables of the project. Then you’re going to need to address everyone’s responsibilities in the project, from the stakeholders on down. Finally, you want to explain how you are going to take on the project—that covers the project scope, resources, stakeholder requirements, among other things.

This free project charter template for Word is what you’ll follow to create the document to present to a senior management person within the organization, usually called a project sponsor. First, you need to fill out a couple of other project management documents. These are the business case and feasibility study . Once all these documents and the project charter have been approved, you are ready to begin the project planning phase.

So, what the project charter is doing is setting boundaries for the project plan. You are going into detail about the project’s scope that will account for all the deliverables the project is supposed to achieve. Once you have a project charter then you have to assemble your project team and begin with the planning, execution and monitoring phases.

Once you have your project team, get them using project management software so they can execute tasks together. ProjectManager turns the project charter into a project plan that can be tracked. The Gantt chart organizes the project plan, links task dependencies and calculates the critical path. After you set the project schedule baseline, you can track your actual progress against your plan in real time as your team works—keeping your project on schedule and under budget. Try it for yourself with a free 30-day trial.

Gantt chart showing task details

What Is the Difference Between a Project Charter, a Statement of Work and a Project Proposal?

Before going any further, it’s important that we’re clear on the distinction between a project charter and other similar but different project management templates . Let’s look at the main differences between a project charter, a statement of work and a project proposal.

Project Charter vs Statement of Work (SOW)

A statement of work (SOW) explains the reason for the project and an overview of what the deliverables will look like. A project charter, on the other hand, is based on the SOW and gives the project manager the authority for project kick-off. Another difference is that the SOW tends to be an internal document that is used only by the company to address business needs and provide an overview of the deliverables. A project charter, however, comes after the SOW and gives the project manager the authority to kick off the project and spend the budget.

Project Charter vs Project Proposal

As for a project proposal , it’s designed to persuade stakeholders about the viability of the project. Again, the project charter doesn’t start until the project proposal has been sanctioned. The ownership of these documents differs too, in that traditionally the project manager owns the project charter and a project director is the owner of the project proposal.

The project charter is created during the planning phase of a project, while the project proposal takes place during the initiation phase. The project charter is a reference and details the roles and responsibilities of the project team. The project proposal identifies a problem and how to fix it or an opportunity and how to exploit it.

  • How to Create a Project Charter

Before jumping into the elements of your project charter template, there are steps you can take that will help you deliver a better final product. Like any project, the research and due diligence you put in before the project pays off during the project.

First, creating the elements of a project charter it’s not a solo mission. While it is often tasked to the project manager, it is smart to get help from the project team members when building the project charter. Before you put word one to paper, lead a meeting that includes everyone who is a project stakeholder, clients and other team members.

It’s important to make this an open discussion, where everyone’s feedback is heard and, better yet, put to paper. This collects ideas and different perspectives for your project charter, but it also serves to help everyone involved in the project stay informed and avoid any misunderstandings.

This meeting is a wealth of data for you to analyze. Review your notes and when you start a project charter draft, show it to the team members who attended the meeting. They might have more ideas or revisions that you can use to update your project charter template.

ProjectManager's free project charter template

Elements of a Project Charter

As with most project management documents , the elements of a project charter might vary from one project to another. However, these are the most important elements of a project charter:

  • Executive Summary
  • Project Definition
  • Project Organization
  • Project Plan
  • Project Considerations

1. Executive Summary

An executive summary is where you sum up the various sections that will follow in greater detail in this document. Be concise, you are only outlining what will come, like a table of contents. This part of the document will cover the definition, organization and plan, risks and issues and assumptions and constraints.

2. Project Definition

You must have a clear picture of -what the project is in place to achieve, and here is where you want to state that purpose and the high-level project description. Our free project charter template for word includes the following sections for your project definition.

Project Vision

To describe the vision of the project, be concise. The project purpose should really be said in only a sentence. Boil it down, and don’t forget to make it achievable.

Project Goals and Objectives

For the project objectives, you want to list those crucial to the project. Each objective should be a statement that details what the project is going to achieve. These must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound, which can be easily remembered as the acronym S.M.A.R.T.

The project objectives can be broken down into sub-objectives. These can include business objectives, which are business-specific. There are also technology-specific project objectives.

Project Scope

The project scope compiles all the activities, milestones and deliverables of your project. The purpose of your project scope is to set limits to the work that will be executed. When detailing the scope of the project you need to take into account what processes, and how they will change, organizational areas that will be affected, what locations will be impacted, how data might be altered, what applications need to be installed or altered and which technologies will be deployed and/or decommissioned. Don’t forget to note what will not be included in your project scope and think about the risks and constraints associated with it.

Project Deliverables

The project deliverables can be collected in a chart, such as one that lists the item in one column, followed by its components in another and then the description, success criteria, and quality requirements.

3. Project Organization

In the project organization section, you can describe the roles and responsibilities of all those who’ll participate in your project, such as customers, stakeholders and team members.

When organizing the structure of your project, start with the customers. Describe who they are and how they will use the project deliverables. These customers can be individuals, but they can also be groups. Remember, the success of the project is dependent on the deliverables matching the requirements and success criteria of the customers. Make a table to collect this information.

Project Stakeholders

Project stakeholders have to be considered in this section, as well. List those people who are in or out of the project, but have a key interest. These can include company executives, legislative bodies and regulatory bodies. Create a table with stakeholders in one column and why they are interested in the project in another. You can use our stakeholder map template to help you with this.

Roles and Responsibilities

Now you want to define the roles in the project. What are the various people needed to take on the project? They may include a project sponsor, review group, project manager, team member, et al. Again, you want to collect this information in a table, with columns for role, organization, resource name, assignment status and assignment date. If your project is larger, however, only list the key roles.

What are the responsibilities of the project? That’s the next item to note. For each role listed, you now have to define a full set of responsibilities, performance criteria and the skills required. You want to attach a job description as well.

You next will need to build an organization flow chart that shows the reporting lines between each of the key roles you have already written about.

4. Project Plan

Begin with what your approach will be. What are the project milestones? How will you implement each phase of the project? Create a table with each phase listed and next to it the approach is outlined briefly.

The overall plan can be scheduled in a Gantt chart . Here you can summarize the project schedule, outlining the sequence of each phase that you have collected in the table above.

You want to know what your milestones will be over the course of the project life cycle. Project milestones are major points in a project that marks when a phase is completed. Make a table with the milestone, the date you want it completed and a description of what it is.

Then you want to list the task dependencies . How will they impact other tasks and will they be impacted by non-delivery, as in are they task-dependent.

Next, create a resource management plan . In this, you are going to summarize the duration and effort of each project team member. Begin with their role, followed by the start and end dates and the percentage of effort.

Now comes the financial part. Here you break down the category to the cost and the value. A more detailed financial plan can be developed in the planning stage of the project.

You next need a quality plan. This makes sure the various processes are being done to lead to the success of the project. So, therefore, you want to list the process — be it change management, risk management, issue management, etc. — and then describe it.

5. Project Considerations

Here is where you address the risks in your project. Describe what risk might arise in the project, note the likelihood (high, medium or low), the impact it will have (again: high, medium or low) and the mitigating actions you will take if it does happen.

Next address the issues, listed by priority. An issue, unlike a risk, is any event that is currently affecting the project. Describe it, note the priority and what actions you will take to resolve it.

Now, what are the assumptions identified with the project? And then list the constraints .

6. Appendix

Finally, you’ll want to attach any and all supporting documentation in an appendix.

What’s Next?

What do you do after you’ve filled out our free project charter template for Word? The first thing you should do is review it. This is an edit for content and copy. The last thing you want is to have typos, which makes the operation appear unprofessional.

Show the project charter template to the team, your stakeholders and anyone else who helped you create it. Get their feedback and update the document as needed.

At last, you’ll need to get the project charter approved. Send it to your stakeholders and project sponsors for a final review. If they don’t have any questions, then it can be approved and the project work can begin.

The project charter shouldn’t be shelved at this point. It must be available for everyone on the team to use as reference. It keeps them on task and sure of the project objectives, obstacles and milestones.

Related Content

The ProjectManager blog features regularly published articles and videos on project management, leadership, business and more. Here are a few items that have been recently posted that relate to project charters.

  • Project Documentation: 15 Essential Project Documents
  • Starting a New Project
  • How to Turn a Statement of Work Into a Project Plan

Try ProjectManager Free for 30 Days

Now that you are ready to start your project, you will want to have to right tools to plan, track and report on it. ProjectManager  is a cloud-based collaborative project management software that allows for real-time data collection. We repeatedly are ranked #1 by Garnter’s GetApp in project management. See why by signing up for our free 30-day trial.

Start your free 30-day trial

Deliver faster, collaborate better, innovate more effectively — without the high prices and months-long implementation and extensive training required by other products.

  • Get started
  • Project management
  • CRM and Sales
  • Work management
  • Product development life cycle
  • Comparisons
  • Construction management
  • monday.com updates

A Project Charter guide to maximize productivity

project charter assignment

Sometimes when you’re planning or managing projects, you can get caught up in the final result as opposed to establishing up-front processes to ensure everything is in place to work on the project. A project charter is often a forgotten part of project management, as they get lost among other assets like the project timeline, statements of work, Gantt charts, and even the project management software used.

In this article, you’ll learn what a project charter is and how a good project charter can help keep your projects on track and boost overall productivity. We’ll also share some project charter examples from monday.com so you’ll know the best way to craft your own.

Don’t miss more quality content!

What is a project charter.

A project charter is a formal document that authorizes a project from start to finish. It includes details to create an overall understanding of a project’s development and objectives while also outlining the roles and responsibilities of each involved individual.

Project charters help ensure that everyone involved has a clear idea of the project scope, objectives, and measures of success right from the get-go.

A project charter is essentially a very high-level first crack at your project plan . It’s where you capture all the essential details before you get going full throttle into detailed project planning.

Who writes the project charter?

In many business cases, you would assume the project manager should write the project charter right? Actually, it’s best if the project sponsor writes the project charter. A project sponsor is the individual who requested the project and who signed it off. In other words, the project initiator. Project sponsors are generally in senior management and may even be the CEO.

The sponsor is the best person to write the project charter document before passing it on to the project manager and the project team since they are often the ones who had the initial discussions with the client or other stakeholders about the purpose, objectives, and constraints of the project.

What are the benefits of using a project charter?

Well-organized and clearly defined projects tend to be more successful since they run less of a risk of going off-track and descending into chaos. A project charter provides a solid reference point to kick off your project — and it will help you keep a laser focus on your project’s objectives and keep things moving in the right direction. Let’s explore a few more project management benefits you can gain from using a project charter.

Here are the three top benefits of using a project charter:

1. Save time

Young companies deliver projects on time less than 40% of the time, and 21% of projects fail altogether. Given these stats, it’s clear that time management is a huge issue for the majority of younger companies. Taking time to document a project’s parameters and objectives at the start will save you time — and headaches — down the road since it helps remove a lot of ambiguity.

screenshot of 2020 project management business statistics

( Image Source )

2. Clarify your budget

When you set clear budgets, you’ll make it much easier for your team members to follow them and avoid overspending. Using even a sample project charter from a previous or similar project will help you establish your project’s overall budget and how to release funding when you need to before beginning the project. Make sure to include who has the authority to make spending-related decisions before people jump into ordering materials or doing work.

3. Reassure team members

When elements of the project go undefined, team members will constantly find themselves without direction, unsure of which tasks to do, or wasting their hard work on the wrong items. Many project charters are set up to organize direction and objectives in a visual and exciting way, giving team members a single source of truth to rely on and make rational decisions.

Another key part of any project charter is listing high-level metrics, timelines, and requirements for the project. Setting key metrics and constraints for each part of the project provides valuable guidance for team members as they begin to get to work. When people have a clear idea of what needs to be achieved when and know the overall outcome they’re working toward, they’ll work much more effectively.

What’s included in a project charter?

Your project charter should answer all the big questions that team members and stakeholders may have about the project.

screenshot of monday.com project charter categories

A project charter should include:

  • Project name: Make your project name as specific as possible. Avoid vague names like ‘application development’ or titles that could apply to a dozen different projects you’ve worked on. Pro tip: using a standard format like “Client Name – Main Deliverable – Year” will help separate  projects and make them easier to search for later — assuming you’re using a handy project management platform like monday.com.
  • Purpose and goals: Think about what problems you’re trying to solve with this project and how you will measure the project’s success.
  • Budget: Outline the overall budget numbers, who is responsible for managing it, and any other important details, such as when payments will be made or if there’s a huge expenditure you’ll need to account for.
  • Deliverables: List which services, products, or results should be delivered to conclude the project and consider it a success.
  • Scope: Define the overall scope of the project. What’s included and what is definitely not included? Any add-ons that will only be included at an extra cost should be spelled out here.
  • Risks: Any risks you’ve already identified should be recorded now. This will become the starting point of your risk management plan when you get to the planning stage.
  • Roles and responsibilities: Include the names of the essential players, such as the project manager, sponsor, client, and other critical stakeholders. You can also write down the roles you know you’ll need (i.e. designer, tester, etc.) even if you don’t know which people will be filling them yet.
  • Timeline and milestones: There’s no detailed project schedule yet, but you may have already agreed to a final delivery date and other major milestones or deliveries. If you’re using an Agile framework  this is where you’d note down sprint length and the estimated number of sprints you’ll need.

If there are any main assumptions about the project that could impact its success, these should also be included in the charter. With all of this useful information, using a project charter example or template can be key to organizing it all in a meaningful way.

Project charter examples

Although project charters act like a written authorization for projects, changes along the way are common, so it’s important to use adaptable templates. If you’ve used a project charter before, you might be familiar with the traditional PDF or Word doc that sets out the parameters of the project. While the formatting might be slightly different, they all tend to look pretty much the same.

It’s a formal doc and can sometimes seem quite limited in scope and flexibility. If you’re not familiar with it, take a look at this traditional project charter example here:

screenshot of PDF project charter example

There’s nothing wrong with the above project charter example. However, using a more visually pleasing project charter that is intuitive and user-friendly, and is easier to share could make a big difference in how — and if — your team uses it.

Take a look at this monday.com project charter example:

screenshot of monday.com project charter example

Each section of the charter has a different color and includes handy information like the status, action type, description, costs, and the target date. At a quick glance, you can easily see multiple components of the project and easily edit each section should you need to do so. On monday.com Work OS, your project charters have much more potential than a static document — let’s see how.

Using monday.com for project charters

While every project has its own set of unique needs, you’ll probably find it easiest to build an effective project charter using customizable pre-built templates. An advantage of monday.com is that you can choose a template from our Template Center — like the Project Planning Template — or you can build it from scratch on monday workdocs.

Whether you’re new to project charters or a project management pro, we recommend you use one of our and personalize it according to your project’s unique needs.

Our project charter templates make it easy to delegate responsibilities, outline costs, add in statuses, and approve budgets.

Best of all, it’s easy to read and share so your stakeholders will love it. While there are a few fundamental components of each project that shouldn’t change — the objectives and goals are some of those things, it’s important to allow for a degree of flexibility in your project charter. For instance, you may need to shift deadlines or change which team members are working on certain sections. There may even be a change to key stakeholders.

Building a customizable monday.com project charter makes it easy to modify components of the project in real-time as you go along. With so many unexpected challenges and different issues along the way, it can be easy for projects to go off course. When team members have to fix multiple problems, it becomes easier to forget about why you’re doing the project in the first place and what the ultimate goals are.

A monday.com project charter should give your project the structure you need to keep it on the right path.

screenshot of monday.com project charter example template

Project charters made simple

While project charters are often overlooked by project managers, they can add structure and process-based thinking to your business’s projects. As we know, well-organized and properly implemented project management processes give your project the best chance of success.

Harnessing the right tools and processes can help you streamline the ground work and ultimately enjoy more project success.

Create your own project charter, or try out all of monday.com’s customizable project management templates — there are 200+ and counting.

Send this article to someone who’d like it.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

  • We're Hiring!
  • Help Center

paper cover thumbnail

PROJECT CHARTER Completed assignment

Profile image of Chris Daley

Frequent customers' complaint regarding the poor service offer from the AMB machines and also increase down time of these machines has been reported recently by the internal team at Smart Money Bank.

Related Papers

khem lamsal

project charter assignment

  •   We're Hiring!
  •   Help Center
  • Find new research papers in:
  • Health Sciences
  • Earth Sciences
  • Cognitive Science
  • Mathematics
  • Computer Science
  • Academia ©2024

Filter by Keywords

Project Management

10 free project charter templates (2024).

Senior Coaching Program Manager

August 18, 2023

Looking for some excellent project charter templates ?

Creating a good project charter is a super-important step to take before starting any project.

Because they lay the foundation for your entire project.  

It’s like having a detailed map to guide you through an adventure!

But what should a great project charter template look like?

More importantly, what elements should it have?

In this article, we’ll cover what a project charter document is, and why it’s so important. We’ll also go over what elements your charter document must have and highlight some handy charter templates.

Plus, we’ll let you in on a secret that can help you craft the perfect project charter.

  • What is a Project Charter?

Why is the Project Charter so Important?

10 excellent project charter templates (free), 10 important elements every project charter template needs, who benefits from using a project charter, how do you write an excellent project charter, how to easily create your own project charter template with clickup.

Let’s get started!

document everything ClickUp CTA

What is a Project Charter ?

Note: This section is for those who aren’t sure about what project charters are and how they work.

The project charter is a formal document that gives you a high-level overview of the entire project. Created before working on a project, it clearly defines the project scope along with other useful project details.

However, it isn’t just another boring formal document !

It serves an important purpose during the project planning phase.

Not only does it make the project scope clear, but it also clears up other project information like:

  • The reason why the team will be working on the project
  • The success criteria for the project (conditions that need to be met)
  • The critical success factors of the project 
  • The authority, roles, and responsibilities of the project manager
  • The budget of the project

But these aren’t the only reasons why your team needs a project charter document.

Not having a project charter for a project, is like getting lost in the wilderness without a map to guide you through.

Firstly, a project charter helps the project manager and the team :

  • Build a structure for the project : pre-defines a framework for the project and also explains the reason for initiating the project (business case) 
  • Assess the project value : determines if a project idea is worth the effort or not
  • Predict the outcome of the project : clearly defines the objective, project milestones, and deliverables  
  • Outline the constraints and challenges : anticipates what difficulties your team might face while working on the project so they can be well prepared to handle it
  • Reduce scope creep :  designates a clear project scope, so your team won’t have to worry about scope creep (which happens when the project deliverables increase uncontrollably during a project)
  • Define the authority of the project manager : the project leader gets a clear focus on their roles and responsibilities 

But that’s not all.

Here’s why any project stakeholder or client appreciates a good project charter document:

  • Documents the importance of the project : the charter starts off with the business case focusing on the importance of the project and the problems it solves
  • Creates a better understanding : a detailed overview of the project builds stakeholder’s trust by creating a shared understanding between the project team and stakeholders
  • Gives a budget clarity : a clear predefined budget adds transparency to the project

So the charter is clearly important.

But how do you ensure that your charter document can cater to all these functions?

The easiest way for you to build your own project charter template is with ClickUp.

But if you want some inspiration, we’ve carefully handpicked the top seven charter templates that would suit any project manager .

After all, who likes to get a pile of documents dumped on them?

Here’s our curated selection:

1. CDC project charter template

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention offers a very detailed project charter template with instructions on how to use it. 

While it doesn’t particularly look fancy, it has all the required fields to record every detail of your project. Its detailed approach suits long and complex projects with a lot of moving parts.

CDC project template

D ownload this free project charter template .

2. NYU project charter template

This is a simple and visually pleasing project charter template from New York University’s management school. It’s a two-page short charter template suitable for simpler projects.

NYU Project Template

Download this free project charter template from NYU .

3. Solarity project charter template

This is a broad-purpose charter template created by Solarity, a project management consultancy. Despite being quite elaborate, it’s simple enough to be understood by anyone, making it a perfect choice for most projects out there.

Solarity project charter template

Download this free project charter template .

4. GWU charter template

George Washington University offers a well-detailed, 13-page-long project charter template suitable for general projects. This might not be a pretty project charter , but its practicality makes up for it.

GWU charter template

5. Project charter by Project Management Docs 

This team charter template is elaborate, covers every field required for the project plan, and is visually appealing. It also provides a short one-page version to keep things precise. Due to its flexibility, this charter is suitable for both complex and simple projects .

Project charter by Project Management Docs

Download this template from Project Management Docs .

6. Project charter by Key Consulting

A one-pager , concise project charter template by Key Consulting.

While this is a fairly detailed project charter, it’s easy to comprehend as you get a brief overview of the entire project. It suits small, simple projects very well due to its brevity.

Project charter by Key Consulting

Download this project charter template from Key Consulting

7. IT project charter by Stanford University

This is a long project charter example from Stanford University.

It’s an elaborate, visually pleasing charter, with a detailed budget table. While it’s best suited for IT projects , there’s no reason why other projects can’t benefit from it.

IT project charter by Stanford University

Download this project charter template from Standford University IT .

8. Project charter template by MyPM

This project charter template from MyPM is detailed, easy to use, and aesthetically appealing.

project charter assignment

Download this project charter template from MyPM .

9. QI Macros project charter template

If you’re an Excel user this project charter template from QI Macros is a great option for you. Use this template to create a high-level plan for your business.

QI Macros project charter template

Download this project charter template from QI Macros .

10. ExcelShe project charter template

Project charter template from Excel

Download this Excel Project Charter Template from ExcelShe.

Remember how we said a project charter is like a map that helps guide you through an adventure?

Well, for you to really benefit from that map, it has to clearly define things for you. Using a torn-up, vague, barely-legible map isn’t going to do you much good.

Similarly, having a vague project charter isn’t going to work!

So what should every project charter document include?

Here are the elements you should look for:

1. The project goal  

The project goal section explains why the project is important, what it’s aiming to solve, the project purpose , and its key objective . Use a business case or stakeholder requirements as a reference to build this section.

2. The project description

The description clearly defines the project’s scope , including details such as what’s in the scope and what’s outside it. It also highlights what specifically needs to be worked on and reduces the chances of scope creep .

3. Major requirements and deliverables :

The project requirements section describes the requirements of your clients or other external stakeholders. It also contains every key deliverable that meets the project’s objective .

4. The project budget

The budget field gives you a good estimate of the cost of running the whole project according to the type of project.

5. Project success criteria 

The project success section clearly states the critical success factors (conditions) that the project needs to meet in order to be considered successful. 

6. Project risks

The project risks section provides a detailed overview of the risks associated with the project to help you be well-prepared for them.

7. Project schedule and milestones 

Here, you outline the general milestones your project would go through. It also estimates the potential deadlines you’d have to look out for.

8. Assumptions and constraints

This section lists out what project parameters are known (called constraints) and unknown (called assumptions) at the present moment.

9. Team roles 

This section outlines who will be working on the project (human resource) along with their roles and responsibilities, like the project initiator, team leader, or development team member. 

10. Approval 

The project authorization section lets your client sign-off on the charter, letting you know that you can begin work on it.

Marketing Teams: Project charters are essential for marketing teams to ensure that all projects are completed on time and meet the desired standards. This document outlines the timeline, budget, scope, objectives, deliverables & any other necessary information related to a project.

  • Marketing Teams
  • Digital Marketing Agencies
  • Content Creation
  • Social Media Management
  • SEO Agencies

Management: Having a project charter allows management to understand the scope of a project and make sure that it is completed on time. This document helps them track progress and ensure that all team members are aware of any changes or updates necessary for the project.

  • Inventory Management
  • Property Management
  • Change Management
  • Hotel Management
  • Hospital Management and Patient Management

You now have a clear idea of what an excellent project charter should look like. 

But how do you create one?

1. Do your research

Drafting a project management charter without doing thorough research about the project background can lead to awkward client-review meetings. After all, if you don’t know your stuff, you won’t know what to say when they ask for a detailed explanation. 

While creating the charter document , identify important project details.  

This includes:

  • The objective and solutions
  • Critical success factors
  • Resource requirements
  • What challenges you could face

This way, when you present it to your key stakeholders or team, you can be confident about every section of your charter.

2. Be specific

Your project sponsor wouldn’t feel confident about investing in a vague project objective , like “New UI.” 

Instead, you need to be super accurate !

For example, you can write a project objective like this: 

“Our goal is to improve the user engagement of our homepage by adding some animation effects, HD images, and a live chat feature. This will create a better user experience and reduce the bounce rate .”

The result is…(drumroll)…happy customers and stakeholders!

3. Coordinate with stakeholders and team

You won’t be working alone on the project, right?

Involve your team and stakeholders while creating the charter and keep them in the loop about what’s going into the document. Anyone involved in the project should know what they’re committing to.  

This will include coordinating with project sponsors, clients, project team members, and other key stakeholders .

4. Take notes

Your project team and stakeholders will have some feedback and suggestions over what to include in the team charter.

How do you keep track of their suggestions?

Unless you have super-human memory, it’s best to take notes.

But there’s no need to go old school and jot down notes on a piece of paper. That usually results in all your precious information getting lost pretty quickly. 

Instead, it’s best to use a good digital note-taking solution.

5. Use a project charter template

You don’t want to build a charter from scratch every time you start a project, right?

It’s a huge waste of time and effort!

Fortunately, pre-built templates are a great shortcut to help you write a great project charter.

But when there are a lot of templates available, how do you choose the best one for you?

Awesome, you’ve picked your favorite charter template !

But before you go out there and have fun with it, check this out…

Instead of manually working on project charters, what if there was a software to help you out instead? 

It’s going to make the project management process a walk in the park, rather than a dredge through the Amazon rainforest, right?

Luckily, project management tools like ClickUp help you do just that. It can help you craft your project management charter from start to finish. 

(Don’t worry, just like the charter templates, ClickUp is a free solution too .)

Wait, what’s ClickUp?

clickup devices

ClickUp is the world’s highest-rated project management software . 

Whether you need help with:

  • Creating a project plan or resource management strategy
  • Managing project risks 
  • Tracking project success
  • Managing organizational resources or creating an organizational structure
  • Mapping project boundaries, deliverables, and requirements
  • Designing an effective communication plan to coordinate with your team

ClickUp has got you covered!

Here’s how ClickUp makes the project management process a breeze!

While you could use the templates we covered here to get started easily, what if you want to create your own project charter? 

Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with ClickUp Docs !

With powerful collaboration features, Docs lets you invite your team to work alongside you while creating the charter. Additionally, store each file safely right inside your project workspace and access it quickly whenever you need to.

But that’s not all!

You can also:

  • Embed URLs and customize their appearance
  • Add and nest pages within Docs for better organization
  • Customize access rights to share files with your team or stakeholders 
  • Publicly share Docs with those outside your organization
  • Download your Docs as Markdown, PDF, or HTML files
  • Rich text-formatting 
  • Allow Google to index these docs and show up in the search results

The project goal is among the most important elements of the project charter. 

However, implementing a goal throughout your project can be quite challenging.

Your team might get demotivated while tackling a huge project objective or even lose track of the goal and go off the trail.

Luckily, ClickUp can help you overcome these challenges with ease.

ClickUp Goals are high-level containers that can be split into smaller Targets , which are much easier to achieve. While this keeps everything organized, it also motivates your team by giving them a steady feeling of achievement.

Additionally, with every completed Target, ClickUp automatically updates your project team’s progress percentage in real-time . This way, everyone has a clear picture of how close they are to reaching the goal .

But that’s not all…

With ClickUp’s Goals , you can also:

  • Quantify your Goals with OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
  • Create weekly scorecards for better performance appraisal
  • Track Scrum sprints or any type of project in real-time 

Goals in ClickUp

C. Comments and Chat View

Whether it’s a project team or a group of adventurers, there’s one thing every team has in common: effective communication.

But how do you ensure that in project management?

By using comments. 

Wait… how do comments help in team collaboration?

With ClickUp’s Comments , you can do a lot more than just notifying a team member. 

  • Share relevant files, docs, or links 
  • Assign tasks 
  • Add a link to another task 
  • Create comment threads

You’ll also need to access those important conversations later in case of any confusion or disputes later in the project.

How will you do that?

Don’t worry. ClickUp saves all your comments, mentions, file attachments, and external links. Access them instantly in just a couple of clicks! 

However, ClickUp offers you more than just Comments for quick collaboration.

ClickUp’s Chat view gives you a full view of all the conversations you had with your team .

Create a dedicated chat thread and have project relevant discussion. 

And here’s the best part for developers: you can even share code with your team members using code-text formatting .

D. Custom Access Rights

Remember, it’s important to collaborate with your stakeholders.

After all, your project sponsor is the one funding your project, so it’s essential to offer them transparency.

Naturally, you’ll have to share most of your project documents with them, including your project charter.

However, if you have multiple stakeholders, you don’t want to give edit rights to each and every project stakeholder . Things could go wrong pretty quickly. 

Someone can accidentally edit out crucial project information or delete an important doc file.

But you still need to keep everyone in the loop.

So what do you do?

Luckily, ClickUp has a solution for you to maintain the balance: Custom Access Rights .

This feature lets you share important project files (like charters), folders, and even task lists with any project stakeholder or even someone outside of your team.

And here’s the kicker : you have complete control over what they can or can’t do inside ClickUp!

Just use ClickUp’s Permissions !

Here are some access rights you can set for your stakeholders:

  • Can view : the project stakeholder can view project info and details but can’t interact with it 
  • Can comment : the stakeholder can add their comments on the docs
  • Can edit : the stakeholder can edit tasks but can’t create new tasks or docs
  • Create and edit : the stakeholder can create new tasks and subtasks
  • Can delete : the stakeholder can delete any task that they did not create

ClickUp permissions settings

E. Multiple Views

Getting a good view of things is not just important while surviving in the wilderness, it’s super-important in project management too.

As a project leader, you need to make sure that everything is going according to the project plan from the charter.

With ClickUp’s Multiple Views , it becomes super easy to get overviews of your project and check what each and every team member is up to throughout the entire project lifecycle.

This way, it’s easy to quickly see if things are going south.

ClickUp offers you various views like:

  • Gantt view: visualize project progress with ClickUp’s Gantt view , fun-to-use Gantt chart
  • List view : great for teams who prefer viewing their project dashboard as a GTD-style to-do list     
  • Calendar view : plan and manage your project schedule across a calendar
  • Box view : displays tasks sorted by assignee to know who is working on what quickly
  • Me Mode : shows you the tasks that were only assigned to you 
  • Board view : visualize tasks Kanban-style on your ClickUp Dashboard

ClickUp Custom statuses on kanban board view

You thought that was it? Nope, ClickUp has a forest’s worth of other features!

So here’s a preview of just some more features ClickUp has in store:

  • Team Reporting : get detailed reports of your in-house or remote team’s productivity 
  • Dependencies : attempt your project tasks in the right order
  • Dashboards : get high-level overviews of your Agile workspace using widgets like Gantt chart , Burndown Charts , and Burnup Charts
  • Priorities : prioritize project tasks based on their urgency
  • Custom Statuses : assign project relevant statuses for your tasks
  • Pulse : know what tasks your team members are most active in during a period
  • Automations : automate repetitive processes in your projects to save time and effort
  • Mobile Apps : keep an eye on your projects on the go with ClickUp’s powerful Android and iOS apps

A good project charter is a must-have for your organization .

Not only does it officially start a project, but it also outlines the business need that your project fulfills.

However, just like surviving in the wild, creating and implementing a charter can be a challenge for any organization .

Which is where project charter templates come in.

But do they really help?

Yes, but they only take you halfway there.

As we mentioned, charter templates are like elaborate maps for your adventure. It helps, but it isn’t enough. You’ll still have to navigate through everything yourself.

However, having an excellent project management software like ClickUp is like having a handy survival expert by your side to help you every step of the way.

It offers a wide variety of project organization and management features to help you every step of the way.

Sign up with ClickUp and start your productivity journey with us today!

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

Receive the latest WriteClick Newsletter updates.

Thanks for subscribing to our blog!

Please enter a valid email

  • Free training & 24-hour support
  • Serious about security & privacy
  • 99.99% uptime the last 12 months

Search code, repositories, users, issues, pull requests...

Provide feedback.

We read every piece of feedback, and take your input very seriously.

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly.

To see all available qualifiers, see our documentation .

  • Notifications

Project Description

Project name:, year of construction:, title area:, contractor:.

project charter assignment

IMAGES

  1. 25 Free Project Charter Templates

    project charter assignment

  2. Project Charter Template Assignment #2

    project charter assignment

  3. Project Charter Templates

    project charter assignment

  4. Assignment 1 ITM210 Project Charter Template 03.docx

    project charter assignment

  5. Project Charter Assignment-8137887

    project charter assignment

  6. Project Charter Sample Free Download

    project charter assignment

VIDEO

  1. ASSIGNED REPORT FOR PROJECT STUDY

  2. Project Charters

  3. Summer project Report Writing

  4. Develop Project Charter

  5. Project Charter Presentation

  6. Ch. 04

COMMENTS

  1. Write a Project Charter: Example Guide [2023] • Asana

    A project charter is an elevator pitch of your project objectives, project scope, and project responsibilities in order to get approval from key project stakeholders. In the charter, you should provide a short, succinct explanation of the main elements of your project before you get started.

  2. Project Charter: Complete Guide with Template and Examples

    A project charter is a formal document that outlines the shared understanding of a project's scope, development, and project objectives, while also defining the roles and responsibilities of each party involved. It's generally a fairly short document. Project charters give the green light for a project to begin.

  3. What is a Project Charter? Complete Guide & Examples

    The project charter establishes a clear link between the project itself and the goals and purpose it will serve in the organization, making it easier to identify successes and areas of improvement in an organization's portfolio management plans. ... Various features, from task assignments to data reporting, multiple project views, and more ...

  4. How to Write a Project Charter: Examples & Template Included

    A project charter is a project planning document that sells the project to stakeholders and sponsors. If you're able to show its viability and return on investment, the work will get the green light to move forward. But there are a lot of elements to any successful project charter.

  5. How to Write a Project Charter: Template & Examples

    The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project charter as "a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project, and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities."

  6. How to Write a Project Charter (With an Example)

    Resources How to make a project charter Use these headers to build your charter so it covers all the essential elements: Introduction - explains the project's purpose. Includes the project name, a brief description, and the formal authorization.

  7. Project Charter: Guide with Examples and Template

    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.

  8. How to Create a Winning Project Charter: Your Blueprint for Success

    Let's take a look at each of the above steps in detail. 1. Identify the Project Vision. The vision of the project is expressed through its end goal and its purpose. It can be divided into, Scope: Explain the boundaries of the project in terms of project goals, deliverables, costs, deadlines and the work to be done.

  9. Project Charter Elements

    A project charter should always include an overview, an outline of scope, an approximate schedule, a budget estimate, anticipated risks, and key stakeholders. ... Dale continues, "Alternatively, you may realize that what you thought was a week-long assignment can be completed in half the time with an innovative strategy you would never have ...

  10. How to write a winning project charter

    A project charter is a concise, high-level document outlining the basic goals and scope of the project. It serves as the foundation for your project plan, which goes into more detail on how to execute the objectives laid out in the charter. In other words, the project charter guides the project plan and execution.

  11. Create a Project Charter with Google Docs

    Learn step-by-step. In a video that plays in a split-screen with your work area, your instructor will walk you through these steps: •. Introduction to Project Charters. •. Design the layout of the Project Charter. •. Understand the importance of each of the categories within the document. •.

  12. The Ultimate Guide to Project Charters: Templates, Examples, and Why

    The Ultimate Guide to Project Charters: Templates, Examples, and Why You Need One - Project Management Report Blog Project Management Tools Deals Find out what a project charter is and why it's crucial for successful project management. Get templates and examples in our ultimate guide.

  13. PDF Developing the Project Charter

    The project charter is a true reflection of what leadership believes will be the project characteristics. Although it contains the usual suspects, such as schedule milestones, budget, project description, and its requirements, the charter also provides objectives of the project, performance metrics (also known as

  14. Free Project Charter Template for Word

    Use this free Project Charter Template for Word to manage your projects better. This project charter template allows you to document all the general information about your project such as its scope, stakeholders, deliverables, goals and objectives, among other things. Once you clearly identify those, you can then build out task lists as well as ...

  15. Project Charter Guide For Maximum Productivity

    Here are the three top benefits of using a project charter: 1. Save time. Young companies deliver projects on time less than 40% of the time, and 21% of projects fail altogether. Given these stats, it's clear that time management is a huge issue for the majority of younger companies. Taking time to document a project's parameters and ...

  16. (DOC) PROJECT CHARTER Completed assignment

    PROJECT CHARTER Completed assignment Chris Daley Frequent customers' complaint regarding the poor service offer from the AMB machines and also increase down time of these machines has been reported recently by the internal team at Smart Money Bank. See Full PDF Download PDF Related Papers

  17. Project Charter

    Project Charter - Assignment Batch 1 - Project Charter A. General Information Project Title: Clinic - Studocu Position Title/Name/Organization Phone E-mail Customer (User) Representative (s) patient. There will be a main server that stores all data, a mobile app that allows doctors and patients to check their appointment.

  18. 10 Free Project Charter Templates (2024)

    August 18, 2023 14min read Table of Contents What is a Project Charter? Why is the Project Charter so Important? 10 Excellent Project Charter Templates (FREE) 10 Important Elements Every Project Charter Template Needs Who Benefits From Using a Project Charter? How do You Write an Excellent Project Charter?

  19. GitHub

    README Project-Charter-Coursera-Practice The project is a activity assigned as a part of Google's Capstone: Applying Project Management in the Real World course on Coursera, the charter and the conversation snippet used to make it are both provided in th word file. Thanks.

  20. Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Committee round table

    On July 19, 2021, the Committee of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) held an open round table on Sustainable Development of the Real Sector of the Economy and Investment Activity (the Committee of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry) was held. The event was in the format of a videoconference on the topic: "Forms of ...

  21. Tushino Housing, Moscow, Russia

    Adres: BOSB Mermerciler San. Sitesi 4. Cadde No: 7 34520, Beylikdüzü / İstanbul / TÜRKİYE

  22. St Pancras Campus, London, United Kingdom

    Project name: St Pancras Campus, UK. Year of construction: In Progress. Client: BAM Construction Ltd. Architect: Caruso St John Architects. Contractor: Colorminium (London) Ltd. Total Quantity: 4,614 m 2. Scope: Schuco AF UDC 80 Unitised Panel Facade System, Schuco AWS/ADS 70.HI Window and Door System.

  23. Msk Symphony 34 Residential, Moscow, Russia

    Adres: BOSB Mermerciler San. Sitesi 4. Cadde No: 7 34520, Beylikdüzü / İstanbul / TÜRKİYE