TEAM CHARTER TEMPLATE
Version XX
Team Name
Team Members
All team members listed below contributed to developing this team charter and have
approved its contents
Team Member 1
Team Member 2
Team Member 3
Team Member 4
Team Member 5
Instructions
What is a team charter?
A team charter is a document that describes how a team will work together to accomplish its
task. Research has shown that writing a team charter positively impacts team effectiveness.
Establishing clear procedures, roles, and responsibilities helps to accelerate a team’s
development and move the team more quickly to high levels of team performance. Also, by
coming to agreement on standards for work quality, participation and accountability that are
acceptable to all team members, the team helps to create conditions in which the team can be
successful. A team charter is intended to be a “living” document that the team updates, as
needed.
How to use this template?
Using this template, your team should work collaboratively to develop one team charter
document for the team. Instructions for completing each section of the team charter are included
in italic. Delete all the instructions once the document is final.
Supporting Documents
The instructions reference several supporting documents (in bold) that provide useful input to
the team charter. These documents, which are available at http://nsharonhill.com/resources/, are
particularly helpful for teams who interact to any degree using technology rather than face-toface (i.e., virtual teamwork). Today, most teams collaborate virtually to some degree.
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Team Purpose
Write a brief statement describing the team’s common understanding of its purpose/goals. If
needed, clearly specify what is “in scope” and “out of scope” for the project so that there is no
confusion in the team or with external stakeholders about what the team will and will not deliver.
Team Milestones
Identify any major milestones that the team must meet, or other dates that will guide the team’s
activities. At a minimum, you should list the final due date for the project, and any important
interim due dates for project deliverables or tasks.
Milestone
Date
Milestone Description/Deliverable
Notes
Team Member Information
Use this section to identify all team members, their contact information, preferred mode of
communication and any other information regarding factors that might constrain or otherwise
influence a team member’s interaction with the team.
Team Member
Name
Location
(Time
Zone)
Contact Information
(Phone numbers, e-mail,
preferred contact method,
etc.)
Notes
(e.g., availability, schedule
constraints)
Team Roles and Responsibility
In the table below, list team member roles/responsibilities required to facilitate effective
functioning as a team (e.g., organizing meetings, meeting facilitation, managing team
documents, etc.). The Team Communication and Technology Plan (next section) will likely point
to some important roles required in the team. The Virtual Team Meeting Guidelines document
might also suggest some important team roles. List the team members assigned to each
role/responsibility. The need for different roles and responsibilities will emerge as the team
begins to work together, and your team should update this table accordingly. More than one
team member can play a role, and a role may be rotated between team members.
Role/Responsibility Description
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Team Member(s) Assigned
Team Communication and Technology Plan
Specify how the team will communicate and the software/technology it will use for each type of
communication. Read the Technology Selection Guide for suggestions to effectively use
technology for different team tasks.
Team
Activity
Communication Plan
Team
meetings

How frequently will team meetings
occur?
Status
tracking

In addition to team meetings, how
will team members keep each other
informed about the progress of their
work, as well as any issues that could
affect the team’s task?
Will periodic status reporting be
required? How frequently?
How will the team ensure that the
team is on track?


Software/Technology
/Communication Media (include
website links, access
numbers/passwords, etc.)
 Which technology will the team
use for meetings?
External

reporting
(if needed)
Does anyone outside the team need to
be kept informed about the progress
of the team’s work? How will this
progress reporting occur?
Document, 
creation,
sharing,
and
storage

How will team members share
documents and ensure that everyone
is using the same version of the
document?
Which documents should be posted?

What other team tasks will require
the use of technology?

Other
team tasks


Which software (and version) will
the team use to create team
documents?
Will the team use a document
repository to store team
documents?
Which technologies will be used
to support these tasks?
Team Norms
Team norms are ground rules for team member behavior. They specify how members in a team
will interact, communicate, and conduct themselves as team members. Some norms are agreed to
as part of the upfront team launch; others evolve as team members interact with each other and
the need for new norms or modification of existing norms emerges. The team should establish
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norms for any aspect of working together that the team believes is important for effective team
functioning; e.g., meeting attendance and participation, what to do if meetings are missed, how
the team makes decisions, how the team deals with disagreements and dysfunctional conflict.
See the Virtual Team Norms document for suggestions for different types of norms that might be
important to facilitate effective teamwork in general, and in particular, virtual teamwork. This is
not a comprehensive list, and should only be used as a starting point to help the team think about
the norms to include in the charter. Since many teams now work virtually (i.e., using technology
rather than face-to-face communication) to a high degree, also consider norms that will
encourage the types of behaviors listed in the Team Member Virtual Collaboration Strategies
document.
In this section, list the team norms that your team has developed and agreed to. You can add to
the team norms over time, if needed. Categorize norms into groups related to the same aspect of
teamwork (e.g., team meetings, conflict management, team decision making) to make them easier
to refer to.
Performance Management
Performance management includes rewards for effective performance as well as interventions
for performance problems. How will the team celebrate important accomplishments/milestones
and reward good performance? How will the team deal with performance problems?
Specifically, what will the team do when team members are not meeting the
performance/behavioral expectations of the team? Consider different levels of intervention,
ranging from initial interventions to more serious interventions, if these initial interventions do
not work.
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