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The Project Charter
By Raymond Keckler | November 26, 2007
The project charter is the official written acknowledgment and recognition that a project exists. It is issued by senior management and gives the project manager the authority to assign resources to the project. That being said a project manager is assigned in the project charter. The charter documents the business need and justification for the project. A good charter will address many questions that stakeholders will have of the project.
The project sponsor or initiator is the one who provides the information for the project charter. The author of the project charter should be a manager external to the project. The project manager is the person who is responsible for the success of the project. The charter should identify the project manager. The primary responsibilities of the project manager are the project planning and then the execution and management of the work. The project sponsor is the person to sign off on the project charter. This should include sign offs form the stakeholders also.
The project charter should have the following:
- Purpose or justification
- High level view of project
- Requirements that must be completed
- Stakeholder’s influences
- Constraints
- Assumptions
- Summary of milestones
- Preliminary budget
- Name of project manager and authority
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Raymond Keckler
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