running a sprint or project?
You need a project charter
to guide your team.
The word “charter” means different things to different people but when I refer to this kind of charter, I’m talking about a document that we use for projects, large and small, to guide us in our work.
I use a project charter in just about every discovery sprint or project I work on because I find it is one of the most effective ways to keep folks aligned in a way that is transparent.
So many projects I’ve worked on in public interest tech struggled due to of a lack of singular ownership, poorly communicated versions of “the way we work”, scope creep… I could go on.
When I started using a project charter, I realized conversations that usually happened far into a project (and often in a period of crisis) started happening early. It really helped make transparent where we were trying to go and how we might get there–but more importantly, how we would handle challenges, take care of each other, and know when we were finished.
Remember: it’s alive!
A project charter is a living document that serves multiple purposes. It can:
Establish ownership, roles, and accountability
Align stakeholders around scope
Bring humanity to your work by establishing team norms and how you will support each other
Establish some standards, expectations, and shared language around the project
Identify potential risks and blockers and a plan for what you will do if they rear their ugly heads
Set exit criteria and pre-plan how you know the project is finished and what will happen when it’s done–especially how to celebrate, communicate
I emphasize that it is a living document because its owner, the project sponsor, and the team should meet regularly to review and update it. This ensures that everything in it is still true, relevant, and reflects the current reality. If things change in the project, they should change in the document and be tracked and communicated. This is how things stay transparent and aligned.
be the messenger
What to do with your charter
- Pin it to your project’s Slack/Teams channel
- Add it to your library of resources in Trello, Asana, Monday, or whatever you use for task-tracking/project management
- Share it in your Weekly Ship (product/project updates to stakeholders and team members)
- Put it on the agenda to give updates or make changes to the doc during team stand ups
- Attach it to your standing meeting invite and calendar invite with the project sponsor (that’s the person who signs off on the last page)
Boring but necessary license information:
The Project Charter Template is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Need more information?
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