Project Charter

The Project Charter is a document that confirms the existence of a formal project.  It's a statement of the scope, objectives and participants of the project, providing a delineation of roles and responsibilities, identifying the main stakeholders and defining the authority of the project manager.The project charter is usually a short document that refers to more detailed documents such as a new offering request or a request for proposal. Projects as described in the Project Charter can be ranked and authorized by Return on Investment.

In Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), this document is known as the project charter. In customer relationship management (CRM), it is known as the project definition report. Both IPD and CRM require the Prj Charter as part of the project management process.

The purpose of the project charter is to document:

    Reasons for undertaking the project
    Objectives and constraints of the project
    Directions concerning the solution
    Identities of the main stakeholders
    In-scope and out-of-scope items
    Risks identified early on (A risk plan should be part of the overall project management plan)
    Target project benefits
    High level budget and spending authority