Project Charter
<Project Name>
<Date>
The purpose of the project charter is to define the reasons for the project, assign a project
manager and his/her authority level for the project and to obtain formal authorization for
a project or phase of a project.
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Date
Version
Description
0.1
Initial Draft
Author
Versioning: Versions include a decimal placeholder. Numbers to the right of the
decimal indicate internal/team revisions. Numbers to the left of the decimal indicate
accepted/published versions. Hence V 0.1 is the first draft, V0.2 is the second draft.
Version 1.0 is the accepted and published project charter. Version 1.1 would be a
revision made after initial acceptance, though the changes themselves have not been
accepted.
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
2
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Executive Summary
4
Purpose Statement
5
Background and History
5
Objectives and Benefits
5
Scope
6
Project Milestones
7
Budget
8
Project Organization
9
Major assumptions
10
Current Risks, Barriers or Constraints
10
Critical Success Factors and Guiding Principles
10
Roles and responsibilities
11
Project Manager Approval
12
Sponsor Approval
12
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
3
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Executive Summary
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
4
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Purpose Statement
<Insert purpose statement>
Background and History
Objectives and Benefits
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
5
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Scope
The following is in scope:
A.
B.
Items that are outside of scope are not included in the work plan and must obtain approval
through a change request process before work on these items can begin. This list is not all
inclusive.
A.
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
6
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Project Milestones
Milestones are major accomplishments over the course of the project, impact most subcommittees
work efforts and are well understood by all subcommittee and project team members. They are
significant points in time, tangible achievements, key meetings, key decisions made, key
communications, etc. Milestones serve as foundation for project planning, progress reporting and
help ensure focus on most important events. This is “milestone driven work planning”. The
following is the most current list of project milestones and due dates.
Date
Description / Comments
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
7
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Budget
Describe the amount approved. Is this a board approved special project? Who administers the
budget? Who has signing authority over budget funds?
List of budgeted items:
DEPARTMENT
ITEM
Columbus State Community College
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AMOUNT
8
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Project Organization
Overall responsibility for the project is assigned to <Insert name(s) or Role(s)>. Changes to the
scope of this project or budget request, must be approved by <Insert name(s) or Role(s)>.
Describe Steering Committee, Subcommittee structure
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
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Project Charter
<Project Name>
Major assumptions

Current Risks, Barriers or Constraints
Project risks and mitigating actions will be tracked using Risk Register that provides a point-intime snapshot of the project risks, owners and mitigating actions throughout the project. What
follows is an initial list of project risks although we expect this list to grow as well as this list to
mitigate effectively many of the identified risks.
1.
Critical Success Factors and Guiding Principles
1. Success factor 1.
2. Success factor 2.
3. Success factor 3.
4. Success factor 4.
5. Success factor 5.
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
10
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Roles and responsibilities
Many roles and responsibilities have been identified for this project. The following table
summarizes the roles and associated key responsibilities along with general level of involvement.
The list below should be adjusted based on the projects needs.
Role
Description
Involvement
Sponsors
Make key project decisions, help resolve major issues, help
mitigate major risks, track progress against project milestones,
approve changes, and serves as project champion at senior
management level.
Part time
throughout the
project
Project manager
Manage overall project, work with subcommittees and
sponsors to address project level risks/issues, monitor project
wide milestones. Own the planning and execution of the
master work plan. Serve as project champion.
Full time
throughout the
project
Subcommittee chairs Manage the work of the subcommittee and manage the
involvement of the subcommittee members, facilitate
recommendations on decisions owned by subcommittee.
Communicates with other Subcommittee Chairs as needed to
reduce any potential overlap of work. Submit progress reports
to the Project Manager.
Part time
throughout the
project
Core
Implementation
Team/Subcommittee
members
Serves as project champion for the campus community.
Participate in subcommittee work including: initial
assessment, remediation, recommendations, key decisions,
policy change recommendations, task groups as needed, and
issue resolution.
Part time
throughout the
project
Administrative
Assistant
Provide administrative support including records management
and maintaining centralized database and provide support for
the campus visit
Part-time
throughout
project
Functional
Experts/Others
Assist with project as needed.
Part-time
throughout
project
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
11
Project Charter
<Project Name>
Project Manager Approval
NAME/ROLE
SIGNATURE
DATE
SIGNATURE
DATE
Sponsor Approval
NAME
Columbus State Community College
Confidential
12