Project charter

Project charter is a document produced in the initial stage of a project. There are many definitions of project charter is given by different authors.  According to PMBOK (2008), project charter is a document used to formally authorize a project or a phase and documents initial requirements that satisfy the needs and expectations of stakeholders of the project.

But Frigenti  Enzo and Dennis (2002),  states that apart from formally recognizing the existence of a new project, project charter serves to grant the project manager to make use of the organization’s resources such as people, equipment, materials and funds to deliver the project.

Schwalbe (2006) also states that project charter is a document that formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project’s objectives and management.

In addition Taylor (2009) provides a more detailed definition of project charter that covers all the aspects that is been mentioned above.  Taylor (2009) says project charter is also called project overview statement (POS), is the signed document that formally defines and authorizes a project

From the above definitions, it can be concluded that project charter is a formal and concise document that is used to authorize a project, provides an overview of objective of the project, and gives the authority to the project manager to allocate the required resources.

The following are the contents of project charter suggested by different authors:

Suggested contents by PMBOK (2008) :

1.      project statement of work  (business need, product scope description, strategic plan)2.      Business case

3.      Contract 4.      Enterprise environmental factors 5.   Organizational process assets  6.      Expert judgment

Suggested contents by Frigenti  Enzo and Dennis (2002):

1.      Overall project purpose2.      Priority of the project relative to other initiatives in the organization

3.      Identification of the project manager’s authority 4.      Important dates and estimated duration of the project  5.      Funds available (cost)6.      Resource limitations benefits of the project. 

Suggested contents by Taylor (2009):

1.      project authorization 2.      Project manager authorization3.      key stakeholders4.      project goals

5.      project priorities6.      scope management7.      product requirements8.      project assumptions

9.      Project constraints and boundaries10.  Initial project risks 11.  List of deliverable 12.  Cost estimates 

13.  Schedule estimates14.  Integrated change control15.  Success criteria

Depending on the project, we can select the above contents. The following contents are suggested by considering the above 3 authors suggestions.

Overall project purpose, key stakeholders, project goals, scope, requirements, Assumptions, constraints ,risk, deliverable, cost estimates, schedule estimates, change control , project approval