Project Charters

A project charter is a “social contract” that clarifies roles and responsibilities – and enables the organization to change and improve.  Charters are particularly important given that many different stakeholder groups are usually involved in a project.  The process of creating the project charter exposes assumptions about why the project was started, what will be done, who will do it, when it will be done, how much it will cost, and what will be the final deliverables.  A good project charter will reflect an explicit and shared understanding of these key issues.  This tutorial explains the benefits of a project charter, presents a standard project charter template, and explains the life cycle of the project charter through the life of a project.