Free template
A free project charter template with every section a sponsor needs to approve, and guidance on keeping it to two pages.
By Christopher Fagan, Managing Partner, PEF Consulting Partners
A note before you start
A project charter is the moment a sponsor puts their name to the purpose, scope and budget. It should be short enough to read in a meeting and sharp enough that someone could tell, six months later, whether the project did what it set out to do. If you cannot write the objective in one sentence, the project is not ready to start.
Christopher Fagan, Managing Partner, PEF Consulting Partners
Fill it in with the sponsor, not for them. Write the objective as a measurable outcome, list what is out of scope as carefully as what is in, and set tolerances for time, cost and scope so the project manager knows when to escalate. Name the decision makers. Get it signed before money is committed, and revisit it at each stage gate.
[Organisation name] | Version 0.1 | [Date] | Owner: [Name, role]
Why this project, why now, and the measurable outcome in one sentence.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Background | |
| Objective (measurable) | |
| Link to strategy or business case |
| In scope | Out of scope |
|---|---|
| Deliverable | Success measure | Target | By when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Baseline | Tolerance before escalation |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | For example plus or minus 5% | |
| Go live date | For example two weeks | |
| Scope | Any change to a key deliverable |
| Role | Name | Decisions they own |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsor | ||
| Senior user | ||
| Senior supplier | ||
| Project manager | ||
| Steering committee members |
| Type | Description | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Role | Signature | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
Template by PEF Consulting Partners, pefconsultingpartners.co.uk. Free to use and adapt.
Related reading: the project plan template, the business case template, the steering committee terms of reference template, what a good programme sponsor does.
A short document, usually one or two pages, in which the sponsor authorises a project and sets out its purpose, objective, scope, budget, timeline, tolerances and decision makers.
The sponsor, who is accountable for the project delivering its benefits. On larger programmes the steering committee approves it and the sponsor signs on its behalf.
A charter authorises the project. A project initiation document, the PRINCE2 term, is a fuller document that adds the detailed approach, plans and controls the project will be managed against.
Two pages is plenty. If it runs longer, the detail probably belongs in the plan or the business case.
A good charter makes the first steering committee short. If yours is long, vague or unsigned, fix that before the money starts moving.