I'm struggling with the level of detail for my first major project charter. I don't want to make it too long, but I also don't want to leave it too vague. How do you find the balance between "high-level requirements" in the charter and the detailed "Project Scope Statement" that comes later during the planning phase? Are there specific industry benchmarks for charter length?
3 answers
The Project Charter should stay at a 30,000-foot view. Think of it as the "Why" and the "What" at a macro level. It should list key deliverables and major milestones, but not the specific technical specifications. For example, a charter might say "Build a mobile app for customer loyalty," whereas the Scope Statement will specify "The app must support iOS 16+, include biometric login, and integrate with the existing SQL database." Usually, a charter is 2 to 5 pages. Anything longer suggests you are moving into the planning phase too early. Keep it focused on the business case and the sponsor's primary goals.
Are you including the "Exclusions" in your charter as well, or are you waiting to define what is NOT in scope until the full scope statement is developed later?
The charter is for the Sponsor; the Scope Statement is for the Team. If you keep that target audience in mind, the level of detail usually takes care of itself naturally.
Spot on, Brenda. Sponsors care about ROI and timelines, while the team needs the "how-to" details. Distinguishing the two saves everyone a lot of time during the initial meetings.
Kenneth, that's a great question. I find that putting one or two major exclusions in the charter helps prevent massive scope creep early on. For example, if we are building a website but NOT a mobile app, stating that in the charter prevents the sponsor from assuming the app is included in the initial budget. Michelle, your "30,000-foot view" analogy is perfect—it really helped me strip out the unnecessary technical jargon I was trying to force into the document.