Project charter template: How to create a project charter

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Free project charter template to get any project off the ground

Project managers should use this project charter template to outline the key details of their projects.

This template was built with Coda, the all-in-one doc that brings words, data, and teams together. Play with the template below or copy the doc to save your edits.

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Project Name

Project Name

Description

Description

Milestones

Milestones

Project Sponsor

Project Sponsor

Project Start Date

Project Start Date

Project End Date

Project End Date

Duration

Duration

Launch Monetization Ecosystem

Release of the Content Creation Ecosystem

Launch Alpha version

Fix major bugs

Launch

test

Ben Lee

8/30/2021

10/25/2021

56 days 21 hrs

Release alpha version of product

First release of the product (testing purposes)

Identify bugs and major system issues for mobile version

Launch Product

Shishir Mehrotra

8/30/2021

10/6/2021

37 days

Fix major bug fixes on mobile app

Mobile Improvements to get ready for Beta version of product

Identify Bugs

Implement new system to fix bug

Launch new release

Ben Lee

9/6/2021

10/28/2021

52 days

Board Meeting

Meeting with Stakeholders

Finalize Speakers

Launch

Shishir Mehrotra

10/15/2021

10/28/2021

13 days

There are no rows in this table

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After a project's statement of work is approved and before the project planning phase begins, there's a short middle stage, as described

in PMBOK⁠

, where organizations draw lines of authority. Everyone involved with a project needs to align around

Who's running the project.

The budget and project schedule.

The project's success criteria.

The roles of each team member.

The project charter is where all these details live. Once a project charter is complete, your project team members will gain alignment across a bunch of important details and set a foundation for effective project planning.

We created a project charter template you can use right now for free. It's fairly straightforward (project charters tend to be short) but deeply customizable with

automation⁠

that makes gaining approval, sharing, and

editing your charter⁠

super simple.

What is a project charter?

A project charter is a formal document that outlines the high-level details of a project, including its scope, goals, timeline, deliverables, and participants. The purpose of a project charter is to help the project manager gain the approval and authorization they need to start the project.

Put simply, a project charter explains the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a project so all stakeholders can sign off on it.

A "charter," by definition,

grants authority⁠

. Once it's complete, the project charter gives the project manager the authority to access resources, set up processes, and even circumvent the traditional org structure to complete the project.

A project charter typically comes after the

statement of work⁠

(or project contract) is signed and before

project planning begins⁠

. The statement of work explains the work involved with the project, the project charter lays out everything the team needs to do that work, then project planning documents explain how the team will do the work.

When they're done well, project charters set expectations and create a foundation for later project plan documents, like the

project communication plan⁠

What's included in the project charter template?

Project charters typically follow a standardized formula and tend to be fairly short, often linking to other more detailed documents that dive into the specifics of the project. For these reasons, a customizable project charter template that you can quickly edit and share is a great tool for your project management toolkit.

No matter how you customize it, your project charter should include ten things:

1. Project statement

A project statement (or project definition) is a very short summary of the statement of work, explaining what the project is. What you put here should be a direct answer (no more than a handful of words) to the question "What is your project?" In our template, the project statement and the project name are the same things.

2. Project description

Your project description is a one-to-two sentence summary of the project and what the team behind it aims to accomplish. Think of it as the "elevator pitch" for the project that everyone agrees on.

3. Project milestones

Project milestones are the major markers of progress throughout the life of a project. Each milestone is almost a mini-project in itself, containing a description, timeline, and status. The role of a milestone is to break down a large project into smaller chunks and provide every stakeholder included in the

stakeholder register⁠

with a rough sequence of events the project will follow. We've found that using a Gantt chart for your major milestones is a great way to visualize your entire project lifecycle.

4. Project scope and timeline

Explicitly lay out the project timeline using specific start and end dates. The best way to explain the project scope is to be specific in your project description and milestones about what is being accomplished.

5. Project deliverables and requirements

A part of explaining the project scope is listing out all project deliverables and specific requirements from the stakeholders. You can fold both deliverables and requirements into the description of each milestone, or you can create your own section listing them out separately.

6. Project objectives

Another part of explaining project scope is writing out the project objectives. Whereas deliverables and requirements are the granular details of what the project is accomplishing, your objectives are the overall vision. For example, a deliverable could be a web traffic report, while an objective would be "to understand where visitors to our website are coming from."

Like your deliverables, you can also fold your project objectives into your project description or have it as a separate list.

7. Project success criteria & expected ROI

To get sign-off on the project, explain how that project will benefit the overall business and the success criteria around those benefits. In the early stages of a project, it can be tricky to predict the measurable specifics around how exactly a certain milestone will increase revenue, for instance.

Instead, we recommend thinking about ROI as a "business need" or "business case," which is included in our template. An example of a business case is "Updating our mobile app for better user experience."

8. Roles and responsibilities

Next, explain who is involved with the project, what they're doing, and their responsibilities. A person's role is their purpose in the project, for example, "Engineer," "Stakeholder," or "Team Lead." A person's team is what team they're a part of, like "Back End."

Responsibilities are short descriptions of what each person is tasked with completing. In our template, responsibilities are a part of the Role and Team descriptions.

9. Project Budget

Record the amount of money set aside for the project. All key stakeholders you previously lined up in the

stakeholder register⁠

need to be aware of what organisational resources they have to work with. Use Coda’s

project budget template⁠

to record your project’s estimated and actual budgets. Once you define your resources, you’ll be able to move on to the next step: filling out an

RFQ template⁠

and reaching out to vendors.

10. Project risks

If you foresee any issues with the execution of the project, list them out as

project risks⁠

. These can include anything that might derail the timeline, create complicated dependencies, lead to scope creep, or crash the project.

Exploring these risks⁠

helps everyone understand what can go wrong and create contingency plans.

👉 Get started with this project charter template

Copy this template

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After you copy this template, you’ll be able to edit and customize everything in this template and use this template for your next project.

How to write a project charter using Coda's template

Step 1: Adding a New Project

Start with the

Project Charter⁠

page, where you can introduce a new project for your organization. By filling out the

Add a New Project⁠

form, you can identify a Project Name, Description, address the Business Case, choose your Project Sponsor, and add the Duration of your project.

Once your project is added, you can view the full list of current projects your organization is taking on

Projects⁠

table. This will give you a better grasp of which Teams are taking on the project.

Step 2: Creating Milestones for your Projects

Next, visit the

Milestones⁠

page to add in new milestones for your projects. You can click the Add New Milestone button to identify which project you are adding a milestone and the correlated details for the milestone. Each milestone has a Correlated Project, Start Date, End Date, and a Status on the progress of the milestone.

Below the

Milestones⁠

table, you can see a visual timeline of the milestones correlated to each project

Timeline of Project Milestones⁠

. This allows all the teams in your organization to visually see the statuses of each milestone in real time.

Extra Steps: People and Teams

Finally, in the

People, Teams, Roles⁠

page, you can view the different people that are in your organization. You can add a new person by clicking the Add New Person button and assign them to different Teams and Roles.

Along with that, you can add sponsors to your organization from external companies by visiting the

Sponsors⁠

page.

Project charter template FAQs

Who prepares a project charter?

The project manager prepares the project charter with input from important project stakeholders.

What are the benefits of writing a project charter?

A project charter sets clear expectations and lines of authority for a project. It ensures everyone involved with the project understands the project's scope, timeline, deliverables, and participants in the project.

What is the difference between a project charter and an organization's mission statement?

A project charter is a document describing the high-level details of an individual project, including the project goals. An organization's mission statement is the overall goal the organization is trying to achieve across all its projects.

What's the difference between a project charter vs. a statement of work?

A statement of work is the initial outline of and agreement on the work that will get completed during a project. A project charter contains all the high-level details of the project with the purpose of establishing authorization for the project to get started. A statement of work describes what work will get done, while the project charter describes what is needed to do that work.

What's the difference between a project charter vs. a project proposal?

A project proposal is the initial pitch of a project, outlining the ideas and purpose behind the project. The purpose of a project proposal is to get approval for the concept of the project. A project charter contains all the high-level details stakeholders need to agree to for a project to get started. The purpose of a project charter is to align all key stakeholders and gain authorization for the project to start.

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Start With:

Project Charter⁠

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