The charter is a project’s best marketing tool.

A charter can be defined as a simple document that clarifies the project in simple words without a lot of details, targeting the high-level management needs. Detailed end goals, schedule and cost need not to be included in a charter.

A project charter template may include some or all the following:

Components of the Project Charter

According to the PMBOK® Guide, a project benefit is the result of actions or behaviours, and/or the value of the product, service, or result from the project brings to the organization and the project stakeholders.

One Project – One Charter?

May not be the case. The project manager needs to know the scope of the current project and develop charters for the upcoming phases of the project.  According to PMBOK^® Guide each phase of a project goes through the initiation processes, and each has a charter (PMI, 2004, 82).

The Hierarchy

Authority in a project follows a hierarchy.

The sponsor grants authority to the project manager. The project manager authorizes work, within the boundaries of scope of the sponsor provided authority.  Projects having team leads, associate project managers and other roles to whom the designated project manager grants authority. The leads and managers can issue charters of their own.

Who drafts a charter?

To be precise, it really doesn’t matter at all that who drafts a charter. But the fact is that a role with sufficient authority approve the charter and stand by it. The charter can be drafted by project managers followed by an approval from the respective authority.