Elements of the Project Charter

We have already covered what a project charter is and its top 5 basics that you need to know. In this article, let’s look at what exactly goes into the project charter. Although each organization and each project will have a different looking project charter to suit the respective requirements but typically the 5 items below will almost always be covered,

1. Project Description

This is a high level purpose of the project. The project description describes the goals of the project but at a very high level and doesn’t talk about the intricacies of the solution

2. Project Requirements

This essentially describes the product/service that the project aims to deliver. Anything that you may know about the product/service that the customer, sponsor or stakeholders are expecting to achieve from the project

3. Assigned Project Manager

Some of the Project Charters are very explicit in this and mention the name of the Project Manager. However, don’t be surprised if you come across a charter with the name of your organization/team/department as well. Also, while we are at the Project Manager, some project charters tend to define the specific level of authority or decision-making power that the PM will have during the course of project

4. Schedule Summary

Just like the requirements, this will also be a very high level schedule that may not always indicate a specific date. A schedule summary is likely to communicate in terms of month/quarter that the major milestones need to meet. However, do note that some charters are developed keeping the Go Live dates in mind

5. Business Case

This is essentially the reason why the company has decided to pursue the project. Expect to see terms like Return On Investment (ROI), Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and other such stuff that helps the stakeholders understand why the project has been undertaken

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