ANYTHING YOU MIGHT NEED TO PREPARE A GOOD PROJECT CHARTER: TEMPLATES, SAMPLES, GUIDE TO HOW TO CREATE IT AND EVEN TUTORIAL VIDEOS. ALL MATERIALS ARE FREE TO USE.

1. Background

Give a straightforward answer to the question: 'why are you doing this project?'
Describe what problem it solves and what gave you the opportunity to make your idea a reality. Try to articulate this section as if you're trying to hire a complete stranger and you need to briefly explain the basic elements of your project.

2. Goals

Describe what goals you are going to achieve and when. It's crucial that your goals be specific and measurable (SMART). For example, "Significantly increase customer satisfaction level" is a bad goal because it's up to interpretation as to whether or not you've met it. However, "Increase retention rate from 5% till 10% by the end of 2015" is a good one.

It's essential that upon reading over your goals you clearly understand what you consider to be a successful part of your project and how you measure that.

3. Scope

What product, service, or result do you expect to get from this project? What actions will your team take to undertake the project?

It's also important to mention what your team will not do. For example, your end product is "a new website for a public library". You will develop and design it. But will you test it, set it up or fill this site with content? Try to make it absolutely clear what you are going to do and what you aren't. It helps you eliminate any confusion in the future.

4. Key Stakeholders

Make a list of people involved in your project. Some sort of who is who in it: PM, sponsor, client, and team members. If you don't know the names of individuals, list the title of the required position and department.

5. Project Milestones

Establish significant dates of your project: start date, end date, invoicing dates. It's important to understand that these dates are merely guesses. When writing the charter you don't have firm dates yet.

6. Project Budget

Make a note of the main project expenses. Treat them as rough estimations. Try to make note of non-recurring and monthly recurring costs separately.

7. Constraints, Assumptions, Risks and Dependencies.

Constraints:

These are the limiting factors that impact your project in a particular way. For example, when developing a new website the number of available programmers and technical limitations (platform, coding language, etc.) must be considered.

Assumptions:

Factors that you are relying on in order to succeed in your project. These factors are considered to be true but without including proof. A few assumptions: contractors will be paid without delay and your client will test the website.

Risks:

Anything that might get in the way of you and your team when you're trying to accomplish your project goals. Make sure to carefully weigh in on this point and clearly articulate the risks. A few examples:

• Tight timeframe. The deadline doesn't allow for any force majeure circumstances
• Part of the team are volunteers with no-money motivation –which may mean that you'll have to find and train new project participants.
• Technical risks: i.e. part of the platform where you're planning on setting up your website may be open-source and may not be updated.

Dependencies:

An absolutely essential part of the project. For a new website, it'd be client-driven content.

HOW TO CREATE IT.

Don't do it alone. The best way to create a charter is to do it with your entire team by having a project charter session. Get everyone together and cover the main points in the document. You may notice that many participants will have different perspectives on the project and that's excellent. You'll reach a consensus during the discussion.

But keep in mind that making a project charter is an interactive process. After the project charter session writes a rough draft and sends it to all project participants. Gather their feedback and update the document. Discuss and finalize the document one more time and have the project sponsor sign it once it's been approved.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Here's a free project charter template you might use with this guide. If you think you need more information – browse the video tutorials and check out articles in the additional information section.