Project Charter Template

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.

1. Introduction: provides relevant context for the project while also explaining the purpose of the charter
2. Business case and scope statement: explains the purpose of the project (including business drivers and any related projects), defines high-level activities that are part of the scope of the project (this will help avoid scope creep later), and covers the expected return on investment
3. Success criteria: defines what success looks like and how the team will measure success
4. Major requirements or deliverables: summarizes high-level requirements and/or key deliverables
5. Budget: estimates project costs, ideally by project phase, and defines sources of project funding
6. Milestone schedule: estimates project duration and summarizes each major part of the project and all milestones
7. Assumptions and constraints: identifies known and unknown parameters upon project initiation
8. Project risks: summarizes major known threats or opportunities that may affect project success
9. Team and organization: defines project roles and responsibilities
10. Approvals: includes a space for stakeholders to record their approval (or disapproval) of the charter.

For more details, check out our Project Charter Guide.

It’s easy to confuse a project charter with a statement of work or a project management plan, as these documents are closely related.

For a full rundown, check out our Project Charter Guide.

The project manager should create the project charter during the project initiation phase. Documenting the purpose of the project, what activities will be part of execution, and who is responsible for performing which activities is critical for aligning key stakeholders before the project kickoff.

Truth be told, not every project has a project charter. Often times informal projects will move ahead without one, and in some organizations having a project charter is not a standard practice at all!

Ultimately it’s important to consider what you and your organization will be using the project charter for.

In some cases it’s the document that authorizes the project and declares the authority of the project manager to divert resources to the project. In other cases, it’s more like an executive summary for the project to socialize the project details to other parts of the organization.

The important thing is not to create a project charter for the sake of creating a project charter! Those ones always end up gathering dust ; )