ProjectConnections.

com Template Project Charter

INTRODUCTION: Project Charter

The template content starts on the following page.

What This Is
Template for creating a document to officially launch a project after the project idea has been initially
evaluated and selected for further work. The Project Charter is a high-level, short document created at
project initiation to communicate the major parameters of the project the executives have approved to
proceed. It summarizes briefly:
 business drivers and justification
 scope, schedule, cost targets
 high level resource needs
 key roles assigned for the project (sponsor and project manager)

Why It’s Useful

The Project Charter expresses what the executives have approved for further work in a succinct,
understandable form, to guide the new project team and ensure the project kicks off with a clear
understanding of goals, assumptions, and constraints.

How to Use It
1. When a new project idea has been vetted by some early investigation and analysis work and selected
to proceed, create the Project Charter to document the major parameters of the project as understood
by the executives who have approved it.
2. Use information from the early project proposal, any business case information created during the
concept investigation, and any cost and other information gleaned from early feasibility analysis to fill
in sections of the Project Charter.
3. Get official executive sign-off on the Project Charter. Ensure the charter is communicated to functional
executives whose people will be needed for the project.
4. Officially kick off a team to move forward with this project.
5. Have the team review the Charter together and discuss the goals and constraints and assumptions to
ensure that everyone starts the project with a common understanding.
6. Keep the Charter visible and review it during the Initiation and Planning work of the project, to ensure
further project definition work stays true to the original business goals.
7. Update the Charter if needed during this time to further clarify its content, but be sure to not change
the meaning of any of the project’s major parameters. The project sponsor must be involved in any
material changes to the Project Charter.
Note: A form similar to the Project Charter can actually be used as a New Project Proposal to launch a
new idea into the company’s project pipeline. The originator of the idea would fill out as much information
as they have and many fields would still be blank in the first version. Then if the executive decision-
makers approve early investigative work on this idea, the proposal document would get updated until the
project idea was fleshed out. The same document could then become the Project Charter when the
project officially gets selected and initiated.

The template content starts on the following page.

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Project Charter – Example Format

This is one of many formats for a Project Charter document. The key is to cover these types of
information for your projects to ensure the proper communication and understanding of what the project
charged to do.

PROJECT NAME:
Project Type: Charter Rev and Date:
Project Sponsor: Project Manager:
Target Completion: Total Budget
Approved:

Project Overview:

Project Objectives Statement:

Succinct statement expressing the bottom line goals including key parameters in
area of time, scope, resources/cost, e.g. “The goal of this project is to deliver xxxx to
market in yyyy form no later than [date], working with [partner1, partner2….].
Problem to be solved, service or product to be offered, cost reduction to be made,
etc.
Business Justification:

Key Stakeholders:

Related Projects:

Major Risks:

Project Scope

In Scope: Summarize key functions, etc. that are assumed to be within the scope of
this project in order to meet business goals.

Out of Scope: Explicitly call out items that are not within scope, to clearly
communicate the boundaries of this project.

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Deliverables: Call out customer-level deliverables – what the project is creating to

convey value to the customer. Call out related major deliverables that affect the
customer’s value proposition – e.g. training programs, documentation, etc.

Continued next page

Critical Success Factors
Factor Key Customer Group or Stakeholder
Specify measurable items by which the customer will judge
value and how the company will judge success of this project.

Staffing Estimates – Project Resource Needs

FUNCTION: Skill level, specific experience, etc. FTE

Functional group 1

Functional group 2

etc

“Function” means the various functional groups needed on the project (e.g. marketing, sales,
development, process experts, networking engineers, architects, etc.).
“FTE” stands for “full time equivalent,” or the approximate number of man-hours divided by 8 hours per
day. This gives managers an understanding of how many people from each function may be required.

Major Project Milestones List any known milestones driven by contractual dates, resource availability,
sales-related deadlines such as trade-shows, market window timing, etc.

Milestone Date Significance

Kick-off Meeting Core cross-functional team assigned by

here to ensure fast start.

Information to Regulatory Known long approval lead times

Trade show X Annual buying location for our key

target customers

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Early shipment to customer Y – contractual date Contractual date

Service/ Product launch Required to meet market window

Project Closeout

At a minimum, the Project Charter should include the list of business-critical milestones, as shown above.
But when the charter is written, early investigation work may have already provided insight into how a
project timeline could play out—how the project would likely be broken down into phases, and of what
rough duration. That information can be provided in the Rough Project Timeline shown below. The ‘range’
row shown is used to show uncertainty on the dates (+/- X months, for instance). Some teams do not
include this section in a charter, but if you have the information available it can be a useful data point for
assessment.

Rough Project Timeline **

Phase: 0 – Proposal 1– 2– 3– 4–

Review TBD TBD TBD TBD

Date:

Range:

Project Authority List boundaries on financial and decision-making authority on the project
Aspect Project team authority Oversight and Escalation

Scope changes

Expenditures

Major Milestone changes

Charter Change Record The team can choose to note critical decisions made regarding the Project
Charter as the project progresses.
Date Decision and Change Made

Approvals:
These signatures indicate our agreement to initiating the project defined by this charter and supporting it
with resources for the initial project team.

Project Sponsor [name and title] VP/Dir. of Development [name and title]

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VP/Dir. of Business Unit or Marketing [name, Product Manager or Lead Business Analyst
title] [name, title]

VP/Dir of Operations or Support [name and title] Project Manager [name and title]

Note: Add signature lines as needed—one for each executive from the departments involved in and
contributing to the project, and executives who need to be aware of the project launch and to sign off on
the charter content. Your organization may have a strong preference for emails or accompanying memos,
but get signatures on the charter itself if possible; an inked signature is still a very powerful thing even in
our increasingly digital workplace.

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