Project charter

In project management, a project charter, project definition, or project statement is a statement of the scope, objectives, and participants in a project. It provides a preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the project's key goals, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of the project manager. According to the PMBOK Guide, the project charter formally authorizes the project, grants the project manager authority to use organizational resources, and includes high-level details such as project purpose, objectives, key deliverables, assumptions, constraints, and risks. More broadly, this document may be referred to as a "Team Charter" for the purpose of formalizing team roles and task structure at the outset of any team-oriented initiative. Research indicates that teams using charters to formalize roles and task structures at the outset tend to exhibit improved performance trajectories.

The name of this document varies by institution or methodology.