NHS Education for Scotland: Project Charter

Summary

A project charter is the statement of scope, objectives and people who are participating in a project.

Content

Project charters are written documents that come in many forms. For improvement projects, they should include, as a minimum, a concise summary of:

• What the team wants to achieve from their improvement efforts, described as an improvement aim. Include how much improvement will be achieved, who the improvement is for and when the improvement will be achieved by.
• Why the work is important – the rationale or business case for the work. This should outline; the problem the work will address, how this links to strategic objectives, how you know this is a problem, who is affected, the impact of doing nothing and the benefits to be derived from improvement e.g. outcomes and costs.
• The scope of the project - what is included in the work.
• How the team intend to achieve the improvement aim – this should include initial ideas for change and the supporting activities to make the work happen.
• How the team will measure the impact of the work.
• Who will be involved the work and their role. Key people should include; subject matter experts, process owners who can make changes, representatives of those impacted by your project (families, young people, patients, customers etc), finance representative (where needed), and a sponsor linked to executive level for leadership support.
• Any risks to the delivery of the project, so that decisions can be made on how these should be addressed.