The Charter: Selling Your Project

An Executive Summary

In recent years, the charter has developed into a popular tool for marketing the mission, goals and ideas for new projects, as well as the project's organizational strategy. The best time to create a charter is before the project has been approved. If the project's sponsor does not provide the charter, the project manager must create a charter of adequate length, detail, and focus. After the project charter’s basic components have been established, the charter should have a critical influence on the project’s delivery, overall effectiveness, and marketing strategy.

What is a Charter

The project charter is a document provided by the project’s sponsor to formally authorize both the project and the project manager. According to the PMBOK Guide, the ideal project charter should provide the following key elements:

• Requirements
• Business needs
• Summary schedule
• Assumptions and constraints
• Business case, including return on investment

A project charter does not need to include all the above components, nor should it contain these components to a single document. The project charter may comprise merely one document, a series of documents, or even memos, voicemail, and references to other documents.

Common Misconceptions about Charters

Traditionally, a charter is a highly formal, legal document, such as a contract or deed. The project charter, however, functions on a more informal and creative level. Often times, the project charter authorizes only temporary “step-by-step” procedures toward specific objectives. When a direct manager authorizes the project, often the project manager is unaware that a charter may already exists for the project. The document trail itself is the project charter, and an orally transmitted charter is still a charter.

One Project, Many Charters

A typical project will have many charters, including a series of revisions that introduce the project plan’s incremental developments, improvements, and adjustments. Because the sponsor granted the project manager with authority for the overall project, the project manager is thus the authorizing agent for each phase within the project. Some projects consist of people to whom the project manager grants various levels of authority. Once the sponsor has authorized the charter, the project charter’s main function is to clarify and document the project’s plans and its series of changes. Ultimately, the final version of the project charter will appear quite different from its initial incarnation.

The Charter and Organizational Strategy

The project manager needs to understand the scope of the current charter as well as to envision supplemental charters for upcoming phases, which may include more concrete and specific requirements. Before beginning a charter, the project manager should ask critical questions about the project assignment. The initial project charter should be simple, concise, and able to turn a creative idea from someone’s mind into an authorized project. From there, it becomes a living document that grows as the project matures. By creating and negotiating a charter, the project manager has a chance to work at a strategic level in the organization. A great charter joins strategy to execution, allows for critical examination as to whether or not a project will reflect the organization’s overall business strategy, and thus serves as a mechanism to stop misaligned projects before they fail.