Project Charter
Clarifying the project's scope and ownership
Using a standardized project charter template can help get your project started on the right foot by getting approval of scope, timeline, and resources.
The project charter serves as a guide for the project team as they embark on their project. The charter identifies the project start and stop date, the project scope, project goal, and project team members. As the project evolves, the project charter is reviewed, modified, and improved to include new learning.
The charter helps to define what success looks like and helps to create clarity on project ownership. Without the charter, project teams are at risk of scope creep and competing for resources.
An important aspect of the project charter is that it helps to connect the dots between the project’s goals and the organization’s priorities. From an organizational alignment perspective, the charter creates tremendous value. But beyond that, the charter helps to bind the team together, connecting them to a common goal, but also helping them to see how their work contributes to the organization’s success.
In many ways the charter should be treated like a living document that helps the project team get started, but is also routinely revisited and revised to incorporate the team’s learning – possibly informing a change in project team members, project scope, and project timeline.
To learn more about charting your projects, please refer to the summary video provided. If you are ready to start chartering your projects, please download a copy of the project charter template provided below.
Download the Free "Project Charter" Template (PDF)
Purchase the template to customize for your own organization
All of our tools and templates are available in Word or PowerPoint format to allow organizations to purchase and customize the templates to their brand standards.
Ensuring that the scope of a project is clear prior to the team executing the project is a critical part of setting a project up for success. If a project is not chartered, it is the role of the project owner and sponsor to draft a charter, ensuring that the project goal, scope, timeline, and resources are clarified. To learn more about sponsoring projects, please visit our Introduction to Project Sponsorship Certification Course.
The project sponsor plays a critical role in the success of an organization’s change initiatives. To get the total value out of its change initiatives, the organization must invest in leadership the skills they will need to help govern project activities. Effective project sponsorship helps ensure that the organization is working on the right projects and that the project teams have adequate support.
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