Project Charter Template: Free Template, Examples & How to Create One
Start your project with clear goals, ownership, scope, stakeholders, milestones, budget expectations, and success criteria. Use the free project charter template below or follow the example to create your own.
Start with this simple project charter
A useful charter does not need to be a 20-page document. For most projects, the goal is to capture the important decisions that should be agreed on before detailed planning begins.
Project Purpose
Explain why the project is being initiated and what business problem or opportunity it addresses.
Objectives
Define the measurable outcomes the project is expected to achieve.
Scope
Define what is included in the project and, where useful, what is explicitly outside the project.
Key Deliverables
List the primary outputs the project must produce.
Major Milestones
Identify the important approval, delivery, launch, or completion points.
Stakeholders
Identify the sponsor, project manager, core team, customers, departments, and other parties with a meaningful role.
Risks & Assumptions
Document major uncertainties, constraints, dependencies, and assumptions known at project initiation.
Success Criteria
Define how stakeholders will know the project achieved its intended result.
PROJECT CHARTER Project Name: Project Sponsor: Project Manager: Start Date: Target Completion: Estimated / Approved Budget: PROJECT PURPOSE Why are we doing this project? OBJECTIVES What measurable outcomes should the project achieve? SCOPE In Scope: Out of Scope: KEY DELIVERABLES 1. 2. 3. MAJOR MILESTONES 1. 2. 3. STAKEHOLDERS Sponsor: Project Manager: Core Team: Other Stakeholders: RISKS & ASSUMPTIONS 1. 2. 3. SUCCESS CRITERIA How will we know the project was successful? APPROVAL Sponsor: Project Manager: Approval Date:
What should be included in a project charter?
The exact format varies by organization, but most useful project charters answer a similar set of questions.
Business Purpose
Why the project exists and what problem, opportunity, or strategic goal it addresses.
Objectives
The measurable results the team is expected to achieve.
Scope
The boundaries of the project, including major work that is in and out of scope.
Deliverables
The products, services, systems, documents, or outcomes the project must produce.
Ownership
The project sponsor, project manager, core team, and key decision-makers.
Timeline
High-level start, completion, and milestone expectations.
Budget
The approved or estimated financial boundaries for the project.
Risks
Major assumptions, constraints, dependencies, and known risks.
Success Criteria
The conditions that will determine whether the project achieved its intended outcome.
Example: Website redesign project charter
Here's what a concise charter might look like for a real business project.
Purpose
Replace the existing corporate website with a modern, conversion-focused site that better communicates the company's products and improves lead generation.
Launch the redesigned website within 12 weeks.
Improve website conversion rate by at least 15% within six months of launch.
Improve mobile usability and Core Web Vitals across primary landing pages.
Migrate all approved content without losing critical search visibility.
In Scope
UX design, visual design, CMS implementation, priority content migration, analytics configuration, SEO migration, testing, and production launch.
Out of Scope
Brand redesign, CRM replacement, paid advertising strategy, and development of a customer mobile app.
Key Milestones
Discovery approved → UX approved → Development complete → Content migration → QA → Production launch.
Major Risks
Delayed stakeholder approvals, content migration delays, integration problems, and unexpected SEO issues during migration.
A project charter is not the same as a project plan
The charter authorizes and defines the project at a high level. The project plan explains how the team will execute it.
| Document | Main Purpose | Level of Detail | Usually Created |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Charter | Define and authorize the project | High level | Project initiation |
| Project Plan | Explain how the work will be delivered | Detailed | After initiation |
| Project Roadmap | Communicate direction and major milestones | High level / visual | Planning and execution |
| Business Case | Justify why the investment should be made | Business / financial | Before approval |
The business case asks whether the project should happen. The charter says what has been approved. The project plan explains how the team will deliver it.
How to create a project charter
Define why the project exists
Start with the problem, opportunity, strategic objective, or customer need that created the project.
Turn the purpose into measurable objectives
Avoid vague goals such as “improve the website.” Define what improvement should actually look like.
Set the project boundaries
Define what is included and identify important exclusions before assumptions become unofficial commitments.
Identify ownership and stakeholders
Name the sponsor, project manager, core team, approvers, and departments that will influence the project.
Add high-level time and budget expectations
The charter does not need a detailed schedule, but major milestones, deadlines, and financial boundaries should be visible.
Document major risks and assumptions
Capture the uncertainties already known before the team moves into detailed planning.
Get agreement before execution begins
Review the charter with the sponsor and key stakeholders so the project begins with a shared definition of success.
What happens after the project charter is approved?
The charter gives the team direction. The next step is turning those high-level decisions into an executable project plan.
Break down the work
Turn deliverables into phases, tasks, work packages, and milestones.
Build the schedule
Add dates, durations, dependencies, and milestone targets.
Assign resources
Match the required work with people who actually have capacity.
Plan the budget
Translate the approved financial boundary into labor, vendor, and project cost plans.
Track risks
Move charter-level risks into an active risk and issue management process.
Report progress
Use dashboards, milestones, status updates, and health indicators to keep stakeholders informed.
Turn your project charter into an executable project plan.
Start with a structured project template, then build tasks, timelines, milestones, dependencies, resource assignments, budgets, dashboards, and automation in one connected workspace.
Keep the charter useful—not bureaucratic
Making it too detailed
The charter should define the project, not replace the detailed project plan.
Using vague objectives
“Improve operations” gives the team very little guidance about what success actually means.
Ignoring exclusions
Clear out-of-scope items can prevent major expectation problems later.
Skipping ownership
A project without a clear sponsor and project manager can struggle when decisions or escalations are required.
Hiding constraints
Unrealistic dates, limited resources, or fixed budgets should be visible from the beginning.
Never revisiting it
If the fundamental project objective or scope changes, stakeholders should revisit the original charter assumptions.
Move from a charter to a reusable project template
If your organization runs similar projects repeatedly, the charter can become the starting point for a standardized project framework.
KolApp's project templates let teams start with predefined phases, milestones, workflows, and delivery structures instead of rebuilding the same project from scratch.
From there, teams can use Gantt charts for schedules and dependencies, resource scheduling for capacity and availability, and project budget management for financial visibility.
Project charter FAQs
What is a project charter?
A project charter is a high-level document that defines a project's purpose, objectives, scope, ownership, stakeholders, milestones, budget expectations, risks, and success criteria.
What are the main components of a project charter?
Common project charter components include the project purpose, objectives, scope, deliverables, sponsor, project manager, stakeholders, high-level timeline, budget, risks, assumptions, and success criteria.
Who creates the project charter?
The charter is usually developed with input from the project sponsor, project manager, and key stakeholders. The exact ownership depends on the organization's governance process.
What is the difference between a project charter and project plan?
The project charter defines and authorizes the project at a high level. The project plan contains the detailed tasks, schedule, resources, dependencies, costs, and processes used to execute it.
How long should a project charter be?
A project charter should be long enough to communicate the major decisions and boundaries clearly. Many projects can be summarized effectively in one to several pages.
Does every project need a project charter?
Not every small or informal project requires a formal charter, but a charter becomes increasingly useful when a project involves multiple stakeholders, meaningful investment, cross-functional teams, significant risk, or executive sponsorship.
Project planning resources
Your charter defines the project. KolApp helps you deliver it.
Plan tasks, timelines, resources, milestones, budgets, dependencies, dashboards, and workflows from one connected project workspace.