Formalizing a Project Charter

Something many PMBOK practitioners are familiar with already, but always worth honing in on, is the project or program ritual of formalizing a project charter. 

A project charter is the pinnacle of any project, it is the justification and mandate for kicking off a project. Most commonly prepared at the start of a project by a project manager, it is the authorization by the project sponsor to unlock organizational resources to achieve the project objectives set forth in the charter. 

A Project Charter is a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project, and provides a project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

PMBOK

The charter acts as the explicit sign-off from the project sponsor formally acknowledging the project as a mandate, assigning resources including the project manager. PMBYPM define the following reasons as justifying the important of a charter:

• It recognizes the existence of the project.
• It authorizes the project manager to use the organizational resources to meet the documented objectives of the project under the given constraints.
• It defines the authority level of the project manager.
• It ensures that all major project stakeholders formally agree on the project description and are fully committed towards the project goal.
• It provides a bird’s eye view of the project by documenting project’s goal, objective, description, and purpose.
• It contains high level information that is available at the start of the project e.g. scope, schedule, budget, resource estimates, risks, and deliverables.
• It lists all the major project stakeholders and their role in the project.
• It defines high level role and responsibilities of the major project stakeholders.