How to Create a Team Charter

A team charter serves to focus and document the project team’s purpose. It defines the team mission and values, working hours and location, clarifies roles and responsibilities, defines operating rules, and helps gain stakeholder buy-in.

You draft a team charter based on the information from the project charter, stakeholder register, and project management plan. Next, you collect input from the project team and client stakeholders at the project kickoff meetings. Shortly after the project kickoff meetings, you finalize the team charter based on the input from the project team and client stakeholders. Setting and agreeing to a team charter early decreases misunderstandings and increases productivity. It is also important to remember that, just like the composition of the team itself, the team charter is not static. It can and should adapt and evolve as the team moves through the project.

💡 TIP - Discussing your team values early makes for a better team! Ask your project team to share what they value and what is important to them when working in a team.

Access our Team Charter Template (includes examples)!

Steps for How to Create a Team Charter

Keep reading to learn about the information to include in a team charter:

• Team Name
• Team Mission
• Team Roles and Responsibilities
• Team Values
• Team Working Hours
• Team Working Location
• Team Decision-Making Policy
• Team Conflict Management Plan

Team Name

A team charter should start with the name of the team or project. You should get this information from the project charter or statement of work.

Team Mission

The team charter should explain what the team’s mission is, including the problem or opportunity they will address and the desired deliverables and outcomes that they will achieve. This will ensure team agreement and buy-in for what they are doing.

Ask the project team these questions to confirm their mission:

• What problem or opportunity are we addressing for this project?
• What are the desired outcomes?
• What are the expected deliverables?
• Are these deliverables realistic?
• Are there any other deliverables or outcomes you suggest?
• What is a realistic timeframe to complete these deliverables?

Team Roles and Responsibilities

The team charter should explain the specific role and responsibilities for each role. The team charter should also explain the general duties of each team member, such as informing them when they will be out of the office, or to review materials from any meetings they could not attend. This will ensure each team member knows their responsibilities and minimizes the negative impact that confusions regarding roles and responsibilities could have on the project.

Ask the project team these questions to confirm their roles and responsibilities:

• Who (or what role) is responsible for completing the actual work for each deliverable or task?
• Who (or what role) is accountable for the work and approves the completed deliverable or task?
• Who (or what role) needs to be consulted with because they have the information to help the responsible person complete the work?
• Who (or what role) needs to be informed of the progress and results for each deliverable or task?
• What experience or knowledge does each role need to have?
• Who is the primary contact for the internal team and the client team?
• What role do you think you should fill on the team?
• How will you work on your tasks (e.g., when, where, or what supports do you need)?

Team Values

The team charter should document the organizational values and working agreements, as well as each individual team member’s personal values and working agreements. When a team knows what they value most in their work, relationships, and other commitments, it makes it easier to respond to opportunities and conflicts with respect and honor (Haner, 2017).

Ask the project team these questions to confirm their values:

• Which of our organizational values are most important to you?
• What do you care about when working in a team?
• What does success look like to you?
• What are your standards for high quality work?
• What environment do you work best in?

Team Working Hours

The team charter should document the team's core working hours and include a list of holidays or other key out-of-office dates.

Ask the project team these questions to confirm their working hours:

• What are our core business hours?
• What holidays will we be out of the office?
• Are there any events or training that will make our team unavailable for work?
• When and how quickly will we be responsive to emails, chats, calls, etc.?
• How many hours per day, or days per week, will we work on the project?

Team Working Location

The team charter should document the team's primary working locations and any notes about travel.

Ask the project team these questions to confirm their working location:

• What is our primary working location?
• What other locations will we work?
• Are there other locations that we may work?
• Will we travel for work, meetings, presentations, etc.?

Team Decision-Making Policy

The team charter should document who the decision driver, approver, consulted, and informed is, what decisions they need to make, when they need to make those decisions, and how they will make those decisions. This will ensure that the team knows who, what, when, and how decisions will be made, and that will minimize the negative impact decision making delays or conflicts could have on the project.

Ask the project team these questions to confirm their decision-making policy:

• How do we make decisions as a team?
• Who (or what role) is the driver and who drives the team to make decisions?
• Who (or what role) is the approver and approves the decisions?
• Who (or what role) needs to be consulted with because they have the information to help the team make decisions?
• Who (or what role) needs to be informed of the results for each decision?
• What experience or knowledge does each role need to have?
• What decisions do we need to make?
• When do we need to make the decisions?
• Are there any times when we may not follow our decision-making policy?

Team Conflict Management Plan

The team charter should explain how the team will manage conflict throughout the project, so that the project team uses the agreed upon conflict management plan to address conflict when it arises. This will minimize the negative impact that team conflict could have on the project.

Ask the project team these questions to confirm their conflict management plan:

• How do you like to manage team conflict?
• What has worked for you to resolve conflicts on past projects?
• What has not worked for you to resolve conflicts on past projects?

What’s Next?

After you create a team charter you are ready to create the rest of your planning documents for your project.

Check out How to Plan Your Project for more information on the next steps to plan a project.

Source:

James L. Haner. (2017, January 23). Personal Values and Project Leadership. Retrieved from https://pmiwic.org/2017/01/23/personal-values-project-leadership/.