What is a Project Charter in Project Management?

In this video I give an overview of what a project charter in project management is by discussing 11 project charter elements that are critical to having a strong project charter.

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Video Summary:

1) Be sure to discuss problems and opportunities associated with your project in a narrative fashion. Additionally, discuss the financial impacts associated with each.

2) Give a narrative overview of the scope of the project you're proposing in your project charter. Specifically, outline what's in scope and what's out of scope for this project.

3) Outline the risks and assumptions associated with this project. For each risk, include the owner, potential impact if realized, and a mitigation plan.

4) Include 3-5 key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can use to measure whether or not the project is a success after the project is completed. A good place to draw inspiration for these KPIs is your project objectives.

5) Include a list of project milestones, and their forecasted start and end dates.

6) Clearly present the benefits of the project. Each benefit that can be quantified should be quantified. Non-quantifiable benefits are acceptable, but benefits where you can clearly illustrate cost savings are more likely to help get the project approved.

7) Include a list of other solution options that you explored in your project charter. This will help decision makers reviewing your project charter understand the other options that were looked into.

8) All of your solution options should include a rough order of magnitude estimate (ROM). A ROM estimate is a very high-level estimated based on a slightly deeper dive by technical team members into each deliverable. From there, you need to factor in project management time, testing time, and additional contingency.

9) Clearly spell out the ROI and value proposition for this project. A good way to do that is by calling out the payback period.

10) Ensure that all stakeholders are listed in your project charter, and that you're clear about the role associated with each stakeholder.

11) Make sure that all key stakeholders sign off on the project charter.

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