The Project Charter

Abstract

The Project Charter is a powerful document for project management which is created to initiate a project. Even before the planning of the project begins the charter is assembled once and is acknowledged by the initiating entity like a project sponsor and thus is hardly to change. Project Charters can be the crucial for choosing the right project because it shows a frame of the project and thus helps the management to deciding to initiate the project or choose a different one. Through this chart the project owner like a project manager gets permission to kick off the project and is able to apply resources to the project. Hence, the project manager gets a better understanding of the project purpose, project objectives, project expectations and potential participants and can allocate the resources more efficiently. Nevertheless, the content included in the charter can vary depending on e.g. the project size, project scope or project complexity.

The following article discusses the content and definition of the charter in more depth and hence provides a guide how to develop such a charter. Moreover, it discusses when to use it and critically questions pros and cons of the Project Charter. In addition, an example of the real business world is provided and explained.