What is a project charter and what is its role?

A project charter is a formal document that outlines the business purpose of your project and, when approved, initiates the project. It is created in accordance with the business case for the project as described by the project owner. It is a crucial part of the process of initiating an investment project. So, the purpose of your project charter is to document the goals, objectives, and business case for the project.

Once created, the project charter serves as a kind of contract between the project owner and the project manager. It gives an overview of the high-level expectations and authorizes the project manager to mobilize resources to obtain the right results.

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What is a project charter used for in project management?

As mentioned above, your project charter serves three main functions:

1. It defines the basic goals, objectives, and purpose of the work (all of which will eventually feed into your project plan).

2. This creates a common understanding of the project's goals, objectives, and resource needs, before you begin to dig deeper and deeper into them.

3. This allows you to present all of the above to project stakeholders to gain buy-in, investment, and permission to move forward.

But it is not only used in the initiation phase. Your project charter is something you can come back to throughout the lifecycle of your project to ensure that your work aligns with the key goals and objectives you have set in agreement with the project sponsor and /or key stakeholders.

Why is a project charter important? ?

Besides fulfilling these main functions, there are a few other benefits to having a project charter.

Is the goal of the project crystal clear?

Because a project charter explicitly states the business case for the project, it means everyone knows how the project contributes to the company's overall strategic goals.

This ensures that your project is not just ticking arbitrary boxes, but is actually doing something that will impact overall business goals.

It helps you identify your stakeholders

The project charter plays a very important role in formulating your overall project management plan, but one of the areas where it is particularly useful is in helping you identify key project stakeholders – right from the start. .

As soon as your project charter is complete, you can start doing your stakeholder analysis, which means you can start involving key stakeholders in tandem with creating your project plan.

It gives authority to the project manager

Alright, alright, “give” anything can start to sound a bit medieval. But whether you gift, bequeath, endow, or grant, your project charter formally gives your project manager authority over the project.

This means they have the power to plan and control the project, and it establishes their role vis-à-vis the rest of the project team and stakeholders.

It's your north star

Okay, we've hinted at this before, but it's worth repeating. While your project plan is great for seeing if you're on track with tasks and deadlines, sometimes all those minute details can be more of a distraction.

Your project charter, on the other hand, is the absolute essence of your project. So if you're ever unsure whether something is pointing you in the right direction or derailing you, your project charter helps you and your team cut through the noise and reassess whether the work you're doing fits your needs. ultimate goals.

What is included in a project charter?

So, what actually happens in the project charter? Your project charter is a high-level overview, but it can still cover a lot of ground. Here are some project charter elements you should consider including in your project charter document:

The goal of your project

Why are you doing it? What are the goals and objectives? Try to boil it down to a concise goal statement. And make it clear! Compare the following:

A bad statement of purpose: “We want this project to increase revenue.

A better statement of purpose: “This project aims to deliver a new product to market X in time Y to increase our turnover by Z% within 2 years.”

Make sure you understand what you are doing and why, because a good goal statement can set the tone for everything else. (No pressure !)

What does success look like

What do you hope to achieve with this project? Now is a good time to start thinking about measurable KPIs so you can create a project plan that concretely meets your criteria for success.

The key players

You may not know everyone involved yet, but you should know enough to get started: project sponsor, project manager, and any other key stakeholders. Now is a good time to list them and their specific roles within the project.

The risks you have identified

Again, you'll discover more as you flesh out your project plan, but this is a good place to recognize high-level risks that you've already known about from the start.

Key deliverables

What do you actually need to deliver as part of this project?

High level overview of resources

If pre-approved resources are already assigned to this project, note this in your project charter so you know what you're working with. A high-level summary calendar. You can dig deeper later, but it's helpful to set a baseline timeline for your project, as well as charting key milestones along the way.

How to create a project charter?

Now let's learn how to create a project charter. Whatever items you decide to include or exclude from the list above, here are some general tips to keep in mind when writing it.

Familiarize yourself with how your organization does it

Make the most of all the existing organizational process assets you have. Are there any past project charter examples you can learn from? Does your department have a project charter template?

Examples and templates can really help you get a sense of how things are done – and what's important to your organization – so you can follow suit and get started on the right foot.

Write it in basic, easy-to-understand language

When writing your project charter and making the case for the importance of your project, it can be tempting to use fancy words and complicated terminology to make things look more impressive. But really, the simpler the language the better, especially when it comes to your project charter.

Brush the fluff

Cut wild statements that mean nothing or apply to your project. Say it straight, without jargon, so everyone can read your project charter, understand the purpose of the project, and know why it matters.

This has the added benefit of removing ambiguity and leaving no room for interpretation, which is especially important in project management where good, clear communication is paramount.

If you can't do that? Keep working and cutting things down until you can. It's harder than it looks, but it forces you to distill what you're actually trying to do down to its purest, most powerful essence.

Keep your plan and project charter handy

Okay, maybe not closer. But for your project charter to really work, it can't just be tucked away in a metaphorical drawer. You should keep it in a central place where you, your project sponsors, and your project team can all refer to it when you need it.

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