Creating a Project Charter

■ Significance & features

When starting a project, before setting a schedule or numerical targets, it is essential to align on the essentials of what we aim for through the project and why we are involved in it. For example, if you are merely handed a note saying “go ahead and run this project,” no one can truly take to heart the project’s significance, and even if the project proceeds, it will be hard to produce good results.

This guide (“Project Charter”) introduces the elements that should be aligned with stakeholders when starting a project, and how to do so. By referring to this guide and, through creating a project charter, repeatedly holding unhurried, heart-to-heart discussions among stakeholders, the project you are about to take on can take its first step toward success.

Even in the latest edition of PMBOK (8th edition, 2025), the international standard body of knowledge for project management, the project charter is defined as “a document issued by the project’s initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of the project and grants the project manager the authority to apply organizational resources,” and it is positioned as a core document in the early initiation phase of a project.

By creating a project charter, you can expect the following effects.

• When you join a project, you can be involved in it in a state of genuine conviction, without carrying the unease of “where are we aiming,” “why are we trying to do this project,” and “what is expected of me?”

• As a result, project members become more able to act autonomously, and the project also becomes more likely to produce good results

■ How to use

It is intended to be used at the timing of starting a project, in cases where stakeholders do not yet understand the project’s content or have not yet taken it to heart.

It can be used when considering a project’s content alone, but it is preferable to use it for several stakeholders to gather and discuss.

The big picture of using a project charter

There are broadly two timings for using a project charter: “at project start” and “during the project.” At project start, you create the project charter so that stakeholders understand and are convinced of its content. During the project, too, you use it to check its content, look back on it, and update it.

(1) At project start: creating the project charter

Three timings can be considered for creating the project charter.

• Before the kickoff meeting (hereafter “mtg”)

• At the kickoff mtg

• After the kickoff mtg

Creating the project charter is basically done before or after the kickoff mtg, but which timing and how far you build it out depends on the nature of the project and how firmly the project charter needs to be set by the time of the kickoff mtg.

*Here, project owner, project leader, and project member are each used in the following senses

• Project owner: the person responsible for the project’s final decisions and outcomes

• Project leader: the person who drives and manages the project and pulls the team together

• Project member: the person who handles the project’s practical work and carries out tasks such as producing deliverables

(2) During the project: checking and updating the project charter

The project charter is not finished once formulated; you continuously check it and update it as needed in order to keep improving the state of the project and the team. There are the following two situations for using the project charter during the project.

One is use within the daily meetings held as the project proceeds.

For example, if at the start of a meeting held as the project proceeds you check—even lightly—the project charter created at the project’s outset, you can conduct the meeting’s discussion having reaffirmed the project’s goal. Especially when the team has lost sight of the direction it should go, or the project has fallen into a difficult situation, looking back at it lets you reaffirm the thoughts the team originally held. As needed, you update the project charter itself.

The other is use within the retrospectives conducted in the project.

By returning to the charter when holding a retrospective partway through the project, you notice deviations from the intended direction sooner and can more easily judge course corrections. Also, when holding a retrospective at the end of the project or at a phase boundary, looking back at the project charter lets you objectively reflect on how the actual progress and results compared with the original goals and agreed items. The insights gained through such reflection become usable for updating the charter itself and as knowledge for the next project.

Flow of the work

The basic flow of the work is as follows. This is a basic process usable in either “Case 1: Exploratory” or “Case 2: Consensus” described above. However, in a Case 2 project with many stakeholders (e.g., an agency-wide project involving all division heads), it can be difficult to discuss the following with all stakeholders. In that case, it is also possible to carry out the following work with core members such as secretariat members. For detailed methods of doing these, refer to the “User Guide.”

1. Discuss the project’s goal [always do]

2. Discuss the project story (*1) [do if possible]

3. Confirm mutual expectations among team members (*2) [always do]

4. Align on the values that are the premise for advancing the project [do if possible]

*1 The project story is a rough depiction of the path to realizing the goal

*2 “Among team members” here includes not only core members such as secretariat members but also, as needed, the stakeholders at the kickoff mtg. Select the members who need role alignment as appropriate.

Note that you do not have to do all of these in every project.

For “1: Goal” and “3: Mutual expectations,” it is best to always discuss and confirm them at project start, but for how far you should discuss and confirm “2: Project story” and “4: Values,” you may judge the need in light of factors such as the time available for discussion.

(Time required)

Each takes about 30–120 minutes. Adjust the time according to the situation and the need for discussion.

(How to conduct each piece of work)

1) Discuss the project’s goal

2) Discuss the project story

3) Confirm mutual expectations among team members

4) Align on the values that are the premise for advancing the project

Tips & cautions for use

• The project’s goal and direction are not something you discuss once and are done with. Especially in recent projects aiming at DX or transformation, finding “what the problem even is and what the factors are” and “what we should aim for” is not easy

• For that reason, discussion of the project charter could go on endlessly if you let it, yet on the other hand, unless you draw a line at some point, you cannot enter the phase of actually advancing the project

• Therefore, when discussing the project charter, a sense of balance is required: “discuss unhurriedly, but start the project at a certain point, and then update the charter as the project proceeds.”

■ Track record & usefulness

In the IT field it is formulated in many projects, but in non-IT fields too it has been used, for example in Yokosuka City’s customer-harassment countermeasure project.

■ Next steps

(Advanced training & practice)

None in particular.

(References and their overview)

• PMI Japan Chapter, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) 7th Edition + The Standard for Project Management (Japanese edition)

• Project Management Institute (PMI), A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) — Eighth Edition and The Standard for Project Management (English Edition)

■ Notes & glossary