Website Redesign Project Charter
This is a practical guide to building a project charter for a website redesign project — the short authorising document that names the sponsor, states the objective and gives the manager authority to run the project, adapted to the realities of redesigning an existing website.
What a Project Charter is
A project charter is the short authorising document that names the sponsor, states the objective and gives the manager authority to run the project. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Project Charter. On a website redesign project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a Website Redesign project
Website Redesign projects live or die on redesigning an existing website. A well-built project charter gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how website redesign projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Purpose and business justification
- Objectives and success criteria
- High-level scope (in and out)
- Budget and timeline summary
- Key stakeholders and sponsor sign-off
Website Redesign-specific considerations
Tailor the project charter to the risks that most often derail website redesign projects:
- Scope creep
- Content migration
- SEO preservation
Example
On a real website redesign project, the project charter would be shaped by redesigning an existing website. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — scope creep, content migration, SEO preservation — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.