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🏛️ Project Management Fundamentals🚀 Planning & Initiation

Project Charter

A project charter is the short, authoritative document that formally launches a project — it names the sponsor, states the objective, sets the high-level scope and budget, and gives the project manager authority to act.

A project charter is the output of the initiation phase: a concise document, signed by the sponsor, that authorises the project’s existence and the project manager’s authority to apply organisational resources to it. It captures the essentials at a high level — purpose and business justification, objectives and success criteria, high-level scope and deliverables, key stakeholders, a summary budget and timeline, major risks and assumptions, and the named sponsor and project manager. It is deliberately brief; detail belongs in the plans that follow.

Project Charter at a glance

Category
Project Management Fundamentals · Planning & Initiation
Type
Tool / technique
Appears in
2 sections
Related
Project Plan, Project Governance, Project Budget

Why it matters

Without a charter, a project can drift into existence with no agreed purpose, no clear owner, and no mandate — a recipe for later disputes about scope and authority. The charter creates a shared, signed reference point: everyone agrees, in writing and before the work starts, why the project exists and what "done" means. It also gives the project manager legitimacy to request resources and make decisions.

When to use it

Write the charter at the very start, during initiation, before detailed planning. It is the gate between "someone’s idea" and "an authorised project". Even lightweight or Agile efforts benefit from a one-page charter that fixes the goal and sponsor before the team mobilises.

How to use it

  1. Confirm the business case and the sponsor who will own the project’s success.
  2. State the objective and measurable success criteria (tie them to SMART goals).
  3. Define high-level scope — what is in, and explicitly what is out.
  4. Summarise the budget, timeline, key milestones, major risks and assumptions.
  5. Name the project manager and their authority, list key stakeholders, and obtain the sponsor’s signature.

Example

Charter for "CRM Rollout": Sponsor — VP Sales. Objective — deploy a new CRM to 200 users by Q3, cutting quote turnaround by 30%. In scope: data migration, training, integration with billing. Out of scope: marketing automation. Budget: €250k. PM: named, with authority to staff the project from the sales-ops and IT pools.

Template

A charter template has sections for purpose/business case, objectives and success criteria, scope (in and out), milestones, budget summary, stakeholders, risks/assumptions, and sponsor sign-off.

Browse templates →

Tools

Word / Google DocsConfluenceNotionSmartsheet

FAQs

What is the difference between a project charter and a business case?
The business case argues whether the project should be done (the justification and expected return). The charter, which follows, authorises the project and empowers the PM once that decision is made.
Who signs the project charter?
The project sponsor — the senior person funding and championing the project. Their signature is what confers authority on the project and the project manager.
How long should a charter be?
Short — often one to three pages. It captures essentials at a high level; the detailed scope, schedule and budget live in the project management plan that follows.

Alternatives

  • Project Initiation Document (PID) — PRINCE2’s fuller equivalent
  • Business Case — the justification that precedes the charter
  • Statement of Work (SOW) — contractual scope, often for external work