What’s covered in this article:
- What is a project charter?
- Who is responsible for writing the project charter?
- Why should you use a project charter?
- What does a project charter include?
- Why use monday.com for project charters?
What is a project charter?
A project charter is a formal document that authorizes a project from start to finish. It outlines roles and responsibilities, as well as project scope, expected deliverables, and measures of success. Project charters help minimize potential issues and define expectations for both parties involved.
Without a project charter, team members may not have a clear idea of the goals of the project and the steps required to achieve those goals. The result? They can’t work together effectively towards the same end. A project charter provides a way for everyone involved—from the executive sponsor who has sponsored the project to all team members to stakeholders along the way—to clearly understand what success for this project looks like, who will be responsible for each aspect of it, and what metrics will help measure progress toward that goal.
Simply put, a project charter is your project’s job description. It captures all the essential details that need to be included in your project plan before you get rolling full throttle.
Who is responsible for writing the project charter?
In many business cases, you would assume that the project manager is to create and write the project charter. However, it’s best if the project sponsor writes this document. This person should be in senior management and sometimes even be the CEO of their company. The project sponsor is responsible for requesting a new project as well as signing off on it once completed — which means they need a thorough understanding of what is involved in creating and running that project.
Why should you use a project charter?
A project charter is a must-have for any project manager, as it provides a solid reference point to kick off your project. A project charter takes the form of a document that not only outlines your goals and objectives for a given project but also serves as a reminder of what’s been done so far, who’s involved in the project, and key milestones. This makes it ideal for giving updates in meetings or sharing with stakeholders or other team members who might be involved in the process (especially if they are geographically dispersed).
Project charters save you time
By documenting a project’s parameters and objectives, you remove ambiguity, which allows you to focus on the deliverables that matter most. This also helps your team be more efficient. Taking time, in the beginning, can save you headaches down the road because it gives you all the information you need to get started without having to second-guess yourself or others later.
Project charters allow you to clarify your budget
If you want to spend your budget wisely and not overspend, it’s important to set clear budgets for each of your project phases. This can be as simple as using a sample project charter from a previous or similar project as a guide. Budgeting also helps you understand how much time and expense go into different phases of your project, which will help you delay work if necessary or see when it might be reasonable to ask for more funding.
Project charters help you stay on top of your work
A project charter can help reduce uncertainty and drive team consensus. The charter provides a visual representation of where the project is going, how it’s going to get there, and why it is important in the first place. This document is a collection of requirements, objectives, and other key items that need to be confirmed before proceeding with building out the rest of the project.
When the project charter defines measurable metrics, it’s easier for team members to do their jobs. In addition to helping people stay on task, metrics may be used to benchmark the project’s progress so that you can measure how well your organization is performing across a variety of areas. Allocating resources and setting objectives are also important when it comes to preparing a project charter.
What does a project charter include?
Your project charter should address all the big questions that stakeholders, team members, and customers may have about a new project. That includes whether it will be a success; what goals the team is expected to meet; how those goals are measured; who is responsible for achieving these goals; and what other benefits there may be to the organization or customer if the project succeeds.
A project charter should include:
Project name and description:
A good project name and description is brief and clear. Use words like Main Deliverable and Year, with the date to help you identify each project.
In the sea of data, how do you make sure nothing slips through the cracks? Use a project management platform like monday.com. They’ll help you manage your files, tasks and dates. Plus, they’ve got a handy feature that allows you to look back on old projects with ease — so when it’s time to move on to something new, it’ll be just a click away.
Project purpose and goals:
Have a brainstorming session about what problems you’re trying to solve with this project and how you will measure the project’s success.
Project budget:
We recommend that you have a written budget in place for your business. This document should outline the types of expenses you anticipate paying and who is responsible for managing each number. It should also detail any important dates, such as when payments will be made or if there’s a huge expenditure you’ll need to account for.
Project deliverables:
You need to list which services, products, or results should be delivered to conclude the project and consider it a success and have that as your team’s target.
Project scope:
The scope of the project should be outlined, with any add-ons that will only be included at an extra cost made clear.
Project risks:
It is important to record any risks you have already identified. This will become the starting point of your management plan when you get to that phase of the process.
Project roles and responsibilities:
In addition to the project manager and sponsor, including the names of other key players in your project such as the client. Also list the roles that you expect will be needed (designer, tester, etc.) even if you don’t know who will fill them yet.
Project timeline and milestones:
The project schedule has not yet been finalized, but it is likely that you have already agreed on a date for the final deliverable and other major milestones or deliverables.
Why use monday.com for project charters?
The project charter is one of the most important documents in a project’s life and sets clear expectations for everyone involved. It describes what you want to accomplish, who is responsible, and why it matters. The best project charters are clear, concise, and include the most important information.
As every project has its own set of unique needs, you’ll probably find it easiest to build an effective project charter using pre-built templates. monday.com and monday workdocs offer a variety of customizable templates you can use or adapt. Each template is tailored to the needs of different industries, and you can edit them as necessary.
Whether you’re new to project charters or a project management pro, we recommend you use one of monday.com’s project charters and personalize it according to your project’s unique needs. monday.com project charters have a variety of formats and options to choose from, including templates that make it easier for you to delegate responsibilities, update statuses, approve budgets, and more.
Project charters have a number of fundamental components that shouldn’t change — the objectives, goals, and deliverables are some of those things. But it’s important to allow for a degree of flexibility in your project charter. For instance, you may need to shift deadlines or change which team members are working on certain sections. There may even be a change to key stakeholders.
It’s essential to keep everyone on the same page when working on a project that involves multiple steps and diverse project phases. A customized monday.com project charter allows you to modify components of your project in real time as you move along, which will help address any problems or changes along the way. With so many unexpected challenges and different issues along the way, it can be easy for projects to go off course. When team members have access to clear goals and objectives, they’re more likely to stay on track and take the right corrective measures early on.
monday.com project charters are a great way to capture the key steps you need to take as you work together on a project, while also giving you the flexibility to customize it according to your unique needs.
Conclusion
In today’s competitive landscape, we are seeing more and more companies looking to increase the speed of prototyping and shorten their development cycles. To achieve success, it is important to use the right tools for your team and business processes.
Project charters are a great way to get started with your project management. They keep your projects on track and organized, whether you’re working in a large enterprise or a smaller business.
With monday.com, you can customize your project’s charter. A project charter is like a constitution: it sets the rules and vision of your project. It helps you get started on the right foot, ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned on goals and expectations.
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