Project Charter

Use the Project Charter form to define the project and its benefits and update this information as the project progresses. A project charter is essential to obtain leadership commitment and to communicate effectively with project stakeholders.

The Project Charter answers the following questions.

Why is this project important?
Who is responsible for the success of this project?
What are the expected benefits of this project?
When will the expected benefits begin to accrue and for how long?
Which areas do the improvement efforts affect?

How-to

The project selection team often writes an initial project charter.
The project leader provides a clear definition of the defect to reduce as well as what constitutes a defect opportunity. Organizations should standardize defect metrics. For example, usually improvement projects use long-term DPMO, or PPM, and short-term Z-bench.
Team members should sign the project charter prior to launching the project.
Record the collected information in the project charter.
Update the project charter as the project progresses.
Usually, you update the benefits section of the project charter after you establish a baseline for the process, which also implies that you have evaluated the measurement system.
Usually, you include finalized benefits information and performance metrics at the completion of the project.

For more information, go to Add and complete a form.