The Project Charter is developed early in the project lifecycle and clearly sets the stage by aligning the team and stakeholders by setting goals and expectations. In most cases, the Project Charter, in con junction with the Vision Statement, is the vehicle provided to the project sponsors as a part of the approval process.

From a project management perspective, the document:

	Establishes the vision state for the project
	Defines key goals and requirements
	Captures and sets customer expectations
	Defines project participants and their roles
	Defines limits and constraints
	Establishes all resource needs and overall cost targets
	Creates a high level view to the WBS and schedule
	Initiates negotiation and tradeoff
	Ultimately defines success.

It is generally accepted that the desired intent is to limit the document to one page; however, as necessity arises, it may be necessary to provide the data on two pages.

The Project Charter consists of the following data elements:

	Product Vision
	Mission Statement
	Captures and sets customer expectations
	Success Criteria
	Target Objectives
	Key Deliverables
	Team Members
	Timeline
	Assumptions and Constraints
	Risks and Issues.

Scroll down to the Agile Project Charter example below.