Project charters are used to describe the project objective, scope, resources, risks, tasks,s and other essential elements that give you an overview of the project. For that purpose, a collection of free project character templates and samples in Excel, PDF, and Word format helps you to make a detailed document of your project.
The project charter works as a communication tool between the project stakeholders. Project sponsors easily understand which resources are required to implement this project and are helpful for the project team to understand their roles and responsibilities.
Project Charter Templates
Project Charter Template 01 |
Project Charter Template 02 |
Project Charter Template 03 |
Project Charter Template 04 |
Project Charter Template 05 |
Project Charter Template 06 |
Project Charter Template 07 |
Project Charter Template 08 |
Project Charter Template 09 |
Project Charter Template 10 |
Project Charter Template 11 |
Project Charter Template 12 |
Project Charter Template 13 |
What is a Project Charter?
Project character is an early-stage project plan document that provides you with a complete overview of a project. It describes the project goal, scope, timeline, task, stakeholders, list of risks, cost estimation, desired resources, and other important factors of a project. It gives you a plan of how the task will be performed to achieve the desired goal. When all the things are documented then it is easy to understand the task of each person who is involved in it. It serves as a vital document throughout the project to manage the budget, follow deadlines and identify the roles and responsibilities.
It is also referred to as a project definition report or project statement. A detailed project character with 20-30 pages is a waste of time. It should be clear, and concise and provide an overview on one page. You can download the one-page simple project charter templates from our collection.
Things to Appear in Project Charter
The project charter is an essential document for a project plan and its implementation. It is required throughout the project life to manage things effectively. A project is useful if it contains all the essential things about the project. A well-designed template helps you to make this document detailed and effective and get your favorite template from our site. The things that should be included in agile or every basic project charter are as follows:
- Project Title: It is the first thing that every reader notices and gets an idea of what this project is about. It should be clear, concise, and descriptive.
- Project Description and Background: What is the main purpose of this project and why do you need it, described in this part of the project charter? Give a brief background that clarifies the project goal and motivation.
- Project Team: A project team is a group of members who actively work together on a specific project to achieve the desired goal. Put the name of each project team member and assign the responsibility among them.
- Project Objective: What you want to achieve at the end of this project defines the project objective. It should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, and Real (SMART).
- Project Scope: the project scope is the most important part of project planning. There is a need to identify what should be included in a project and what not. It involves the information that defines the project requirement provided by the stakeholder.
- Budget Details: It is a plan of expenses that defines how much expenses can be spent on each task.
- Deliverables: Deliverables are the output of the project. State clearly what is produced at the end of this project.
- Project constraints: Constraints are the rules or limits that you need to follow for desired output.
- List of risks: Describe the risk under which a project may not be completed successfully.
- Project Timeline: How much time is needed to complete this project and what time is required for each task to implement?
- Stakeholders: Stakeholders are the person who is involved in a successful project. Put details of each stakeholder with their name, roles, and responsibilities.
- Project Approval: It should include the signature of the stakeholder for project charter approval.
Benefits of Project Charter
Project Charter is a planning tool for the desired goal. It gives you lots of benefits. Some common benefits of a project charter are as follows:
- It gives you an overview of how the project will achieve the desired goal.
- Cost estimation is done at an early stage of the project development.
- Helpful to determine the project’s progress.
- It is easy to identify the roles and responsibilities of each person who is involved in the success of the project charter.
- It serves as a communication medium for the stakeholder to understand the project task and its implementation.
- All the risks and issues are clearly defined that are helpful for the stakeholder to make a decision.
- It is easy to manage the whole project when you have a detailed project charter.
Tips for Writing a Perfect Project Charter
If you want a successful start to your project then a well-designed charter template for project management helps to make a useful plan. Everyone is looking for some “best practice” to make a perfect project character. Here we share a list of useful tips that helps to make it effective:
- In project management, time is everything. You should download a standard project character template to save you time and effort in making it from scratch.
- Make sure, it is clear and easily understandable by every person who is associated with this project.
- Review the project charter to find and eliminate errors.
- The objective of the project should be set using the SMART rule.
- Take some extra time to identify risks and ways to handle them effectively.