Project-Charter

1. Project Charter
Nimra zaman (Lead trainer)

2. 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

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

4. The word “charter” is used in English
to describe executed contracts or
deeds, often founding papers for
cities, educational institutions, or
even governmental bodies.
Traditionally a charter is a formal,
legal document.

5. A project charter is quite different.
Typically it is not prepared by lawyers
and a project charter might not carry
any legal weight.
The project charter is authorizing a
temporary endeavor, not an
educational institution, not a state,
and not a country's constitutional
government.

6. What is a project charter ?
• 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.
• “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.” Project
Management Institute (PMI)

7. • The project charter should be considered a
living document. If the project governing
body approves major changes to the project
(scope, budget, calendar, or otherwise), the
project charter should be updated and
signed to reflect the new project
parameters.
• In summary, the project charter serves as
the project manager’s ally. It establishes
among key stakeholders a common
understanding of the project in terms of
scope, budget, schedule, benefits, and risks.
• Once the project is officially authorized, the
next step is to communicate the launch of
the project activities to the many

8. IT AIMS
TO:
The project charter can be used to
accomplish many objectives.
It aims to:
• Officially authorize the start of
project activities and the use of
resources for project implementation
• Ensure that there is shared
understanding of the project
parameters among key project
stakeholders and sponsors (both
internal and external)
• Document a shared commitment to
the objectives of the project and the
resources/activities required for
project success.

9. Why Is It
Important?
• 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.

10. A Project Charter Story
This is a true story of a project charter! The story
takes place in Vietnam, where an education
project needed to work with multiple layers of
government: the Line Ministry, the Provincial
People’s Committee, and local and community
levels.
This project took place at a time when
communication was extremely limited in Vietnam
and email was rare. Official project documents,
MOUs, and proposals were often unread.
In addition, liaison staff in the different levels of
government sometimes changed, and these
changes were not always communicated. There
were also changes in the NGO.

11. The project charter
facilitated understanding.
It also meant that when a
position changed, there was
an up-to-date document
that could be shared.
There was a need for something to help keep all stakeholders focused.
A charter was able to do this as it was short and a summary document. Being
short, it was easy to present to stakeholders and it could be read in a
meeting.

12. 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.

13. Project charter vs. project plan: What’s
the difference?
 Document that explains
the what and why of your project.
 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.
 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.
 while your project plan outlines
the how, when, and who.
 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.

14. How to write a project
charter
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:
• Goals
• Constraints (including deadlines and budgets)
• Risks
• Stakeholders
• Any other details that will help you truly define
your project

15. How to write a
project charter
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.

16. How to write a
project charter
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.
• Project name
• Business case
• Goals and objectives
• Scope and deliverables
• Resource needed
• Budget
• Timeline
• Risks and issues
• Dependencies and assumptions

17. • 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.

18. • 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:

19. 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.

20. • Goals
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.

21. 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.

22. • 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.

23. 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:
• Home page
• 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

24. • 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.

25. 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) For Placement Only 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 content
entry staff.

26. • Budget
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.

27. 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

28. • Timeline
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 in your plan

29. 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 – Kick off
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

30. • 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.

31. 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.

32. • 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.

33. 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.

34. • Stakeholders
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.

35. 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

36. Benefits Of Using A Project Charter
It goes without saying that 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.
Kicking your project off right from the beginning
will help you keep a laser focus on your project’s
objectives and keep things moving in the right
direction.
When you take a look at a successful project from
end to end, you’ll likely want to use that team’s
methods as an example of a project charter.

37. Benefits Of Using A Project Charter
1 2
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
Save time
If your team doesn’t have a clear
idea of the project’s overall
budget, how are they meant to
stick to it? 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—this should include who
has the authority to make
Clarify your budget

38. Benefits Of Using A Project Charter
3 4
Boost team morale
A key part of any project charter
is the setting out of high-level
metrics, timelines, and
requirements for the project.
Setting out 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.
Give clear guidelines
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 charter
examples are set up to
organize direction and
objectives in a visual and
exciting way.

41. VISION OF SUCCESS
• What outcomes or results do you want to see?
• What does success look like for our customer?
• What does success look like for other stakeholders (staff, partners)?
PROJECT MILESTONES & SCHEDULE
RESOURCES
• Time commitment for a 4 day Kaizen, excluding time to implement changes: Sponsor (6-10
hrs.); Team Leader (40 hrs.); Team Members (32 hrs.); Facilitator (40-50 hrs.)
• External Resources:
• Equipment:
• Materials:
< TITLE> <date>
<sponsor>
CONTEXT / ISSUES
• What is the issue and why is it important to tackle now?
• What is the purpose, the business reason for choosing this project?
• What are the anticipated benefits to customers and staff from the project?
• What performance measure needs to improve?
• Have you been to the Gemba?
• What process/program/customer data do you have regarding the problem (time, cost,
quality )? Show facts and processes visually using charts, graphs, maps, etc.
• When did the problem start?
• Where is the problem occurring?
• What is the extent or magnitude of the problem?
GOALS
• What specific, measurable , attainable, relevant, time-bound results do you want or need
to accomplish?
• Show visually how much, by when, and with what impact.
• NOTE: Be careful not to state a solution as a goal!
SCOPE
• What is the first step and last step in the
process?
• What is the program and geographic area?
• NOTE: Be mindful of what you can
realistically accomplish with available
resources and time.
SCOPE
• What is off the table due to resources?
• What are the givens or assumptions for the
project?
• Record out of scope issues in a “Parking
Lot”
CUSTOMERS/STAKEHOLDERS
• Who is the end-user customer?
• Who are other stakeholders who have a
role or interest in the success of the
process?
TEAM MEMBERS
• Team Leader:
• Team Members:
CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS
• What do customers/stakeholders expect and require from the process? What are their
critical to quality (CTQ) requirements?
• What legal requirements (laws, rules) govern the process?
Project Milestones Owner Proposed
Date
Actual
Date
1. Set project scope and goals (prepare Project
Charter, engage team, collect data)
Sponsor/Team Leader,
Facilitator
2. Understand the current situation Facilitator/ Team
3. Analyze the current situation (root causes) Facilitator/ Team
4. Define a vision of success Facilitator/ Team
5. Generate, evaluate and select improvements Team/ Sponsor
6. Implement changes and make adjustments Team Leader/ Staff
7. Measure performance Sponsor/Team Leader
8. Document standard work and lessons learned Team
9. Sustain improvement Team Leader/Process
Owner

42. VISION OF SUCCESS
PROJECT MILESTONES & SCHEDULE
RESOURCES
• Time commitment for a 4 day Kaizen, excluding time to implement changes: Sponsor (6-10 hrs.); Team Leader (40 hrs.);
Team Members (32 hrs.); Facilitator (40-50 hrs.)
• External Resources:
• Equipment:
• Materials:
< TITLE> <date>
<sponsor>
CONTEXT / ISSUES
GOALS
SCOPE SCOPE
CUSTOMERS/STAKEHOLDERS TEAM MEMBERS
• Team Leader:
• Team Members:
CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS (CTQ)
Project Milestones Owner Proposed
Date
Actual
Date
1. Set project scope and goals (prepare Project
Charter, engage team, collect data)
Sponsor/Team Leader,
Facilitator
2. Understand the current situation Facilitator/ Team
3. Analyze the current situation (root causes) Facilitator/ Team
4. Define a vision of success Facilitator/ Team
5. Generate, evaluate and select improvements Team/ Sponsor
6. Implement changes and make adjustments Team Leader/ Staff
7. Measure performance Sponsor/Team Leader
8. Document standard work and lessons learned Team
9. Sustain improvement Team Leader/Process
Owner

43. 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
• Analyze 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
sufficient body and hand movements.

44. Your task
• Create a project carter and present it.

45. Feel free to approach if
you have any questions.
Thank you!