Project Charter Free Template

Have a clearer vision of your project, distribute roles and get stakeholders’ approval with Akveo free & easy-to-use project charter template. You can apply the template to projects of any type and complexity.

Download Project Charter template in Google Docs format.
The template is ready for immediate use on your project.

Project Charter Free Template

The Definition of Project Charter

The Project Charter is a formal presentation of your project based on the Statement of Work (SoW). With this document, a project manager gets permission to spend the budget according to the major deliverables and provisions specified in the charter. The Project Charter serves as a compass that helps project managers navigate the project development journey.
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General overview

Shows the project’s goals, scope, major milestones, and people responsible for delivering the result at each stage.

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Resource management

Helps evaluate your project, clarify the budget expenditures, and apportion tasks between the team members.

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Project organization

Helps save time during the project execution, reassure the sponsors about your competence, and boost team performance.

What is Included in the Project Charter

The elements of the Project Charter can vary depending on the type of your project. These are the must-have parts of any Project Charter:

1

Project Charter Introduction

General information on Project Charter (version and release date) and the project itself (name, sponsor, and managers).

2

Project Management Process

The list of potential obstacles and risks that can complicate your project delivery process.

3

Business Case

The description of the project’s opportunities, conditions, and unique characteristics. This element can go as a separate chapter or a single block.

4

Team Management

A clear definition of goals, roles, and responsibilities eliminates the confusion among the team and management.

5

Project’s Deliverables

Client’s/stakeholder’s requirements and deliverables your team should stick to while developing the project.

6

Project’s roadmap

The project’s schedule or timeline with milestones and guidelines to measure up the progress.

7

Project Management Process

Task status tracking, documentation, repositories, result delivery, system deployment rules, teamwork methodology, meetings, etc.

8

Project budget information

Financial resources available at each stage of the project/the person responsible for funds’ distribution.

9

Approval Field

The place for the stakeholder’s name, signature, and the date of the charter’s approval.

10

Success factors

Points and criteria that indicate the project’s successful accomplishment.

How You Benefit from Making a Project Charter

Creating the Project Charter of high quality will allow you to:

01

Save Time Down
the Road

02

Stay Within Budget & Distribute it Wisely

03

Tackle the Possible Issues Proactively

04

Organize Team & Streamline Workflow

05

Inspire Trust in Sponsors & Stakeholders

06

Set the Goals & Clarify Destination Points

How to write a Project Charter Document?

Here are the major steps you take to create a proper project charter.

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1

Conduct organizational meetings with stakeholders and team

Discuss the project with all parties involved to gather as much info as possible. Take notes or record the most valuable ideas for further inclusion in the Project Charter.

2

Choose the appropriate Project Charter template for your project

You are already in the right place to get the one-fits-all Project Charter template for free. Take it and proceed to the next step.

3

Fill in the template with the project specifications you’ve got in the organizational meetings

Gather up the notes and records from your meetings and distribute the info to the corresponding fields of your Project Charter template.

4

Revise the Project Charter with your team

Discuss the project charter draft with your team & managers before submitting it to the sponsors. This will help to get rid of possible mistakes and complement the charter’s content.

5

Present the Project Charter to the sponsors/stakeholders for approval

Show the final version to your sponsors to get access to the project’s budget resources. Additionally, the stakeholders will specify the deliverables, goals & success criteria for your project before you start.

FAQ

Who creates the project charter?

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As a rule, the project’s sponsors are responsible for the Project Charter creation. However, they usually delegate the duty to project managers who define objectives, create a roadmap and distribute responsibilities within the team.

What about project charter actualization? Should it be done, and by whom?

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Yes, it should. In fact, it is a common practice to update Project Charter on the go. The actualization is vital because the first version can lack the necessary details on the initial stage of the project. However, it's critical to save & mark all the Project Charter versions to retrospect and gain experience. The central actualization authority is your sponsor, and your team members also participate in the actualization process. They help you make the project charter as clear and precise as possible.

What is the value of a project charter?

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What is the difference between project charter and SOW, project charter, and project plan?

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Statement of Work (SoW) is a project’s proposal that contains its scope, deliverables, and accomplishment criteria. The SoW can be developed prior, after, or during the Project Charter writing. The sequence of SoW & Project Charter is highly debatable in the project management community. It depends on the business case and working styles.

After the project charter and SoW are ready and approved, you create the project plan, proceeding from the chapter’s/SoW terms. The plan is the detailed map that shows the most effective way to get to the goals and objectives of the project.

What are the risks of ignoring a Project Charter?

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If you write your project charter irresponsibly or don’t stick to it, you will experience much confusion during the project realization. Negligence towards this document can result in funding and project loss.

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