Team Charter

Definition

Team Charter

the management work product that documents a team and mandates its formation

Objectives

The typical objectives of a team charter are to:

• Act as a contract between the team and its management.
• Show management’s endorsement of the team.
• Document the team’s:
  • Mandate in terms of:
    • Goals / Mission
    • Responsibilities
    • Linkage to organization’s goals and strategies
    • Duration
    • Limitations and constraints
  • Membership of the team in terms of the roles played by its members
  • Resources to be used by the team in terms of time, tools, equipment, facilities, etc.
  • Relationship to other teams, organizations, and stakeholders
  • Shared values, principles, beliefs, and norms of behavior
• Mandate the formation of the team in terms of:
  • Management authorization (e.g., management’s signatures)
  • Team acceptance of management’s mandate (e.g., team member’s signatures)

Benefits

The typical benefits of a team charter are to:

• Provide a common vision that keeps the team membership focused on achieving their goals.
• Sets the scope of the team’s tasks.
• Improve the team’s shared understanding and expectations.
• Help the team set its priorities.
• Improve the team’s effectiveness and productivity.
• Improve probability of team receiving the necessary authority and resources.

Contents

A team charter typically has the following contents:

• Team Name
• Date and Version
• Team Mandate:
  • Definition
  • Vision
  • Goals
  • Relationship to Organizational Goals and Strategies
  • Duration
  • Limitations and Constraints
  • Success Criteria / Metrics
• Statement of Work:
  • Responsibilities
  • Tasks
  • Work Products
  • Services
  • Milestones
• Team Membership:
  • Roles with Team-Specific Responsibilities
• Required Resources:
  • Effort:
    • Performance time to prepare and produce work products
    • Performance time provide services
    • Process improvement time
  • Budget
  • Facilities
  • Tools and Equipment
• Team Relationships:
  • Team Sponsor(s) / Champion(s)
  • Management
  • Other Teams
  • Organizations
  • Stakeholders
• Philosophy:
  • Shared Values
  • Principles
  • Beliefs and Assumptions
  • Norms of Behavior (Ground Rules)
  • Guidelines
• Team Processes:
  • Decision Making
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Communication
• Authority:
  • Statement of Management Support
  • Team Member’s Signatures
  • Process Engineer Signature
  • Management Signatures

Stakeholders

A team charter typically has the following stakeholders:

• Producers:
  • The team or management
  • A representative of the process team
  • The management sponsor
• Evaluators:
  • The team
  • The process engineer
  • Management sponsor
• Approvers:
  • The team
  • The process engineer
  • Management
• Maintainers:
  • The team
• Users:
  • The team

Phases

A team charter is typically produced and maintained during the following phases:

• Varies with the team

Preconditions

A team charter can typically be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The endeavor has started.
• The team is staffed.

Inputs

A team charter typically has the following inputs:

• Work Products:
  • Varies with the team
• Stakeholders:
  • Varies with the team

Guidelines

• Teams will be more effective with a written charter.
• Team charters need not be large and complex. Most team charters will fit on only a few pages.
• Initial team charters can be developed by:
  • Management and given to the respective teams for tailoring and acceptance
  • Teams and given to top management for acceptance and authorization
  • Representatives of both management and the team
  • The process team based on the development process
• Process team descriptions (e.g., reusable process components such as in this website) are good places to find initial default team charter content.
• Tailoring may remove redundant information from the team charter that is included in either the relevant parts of the process description document or relevant conventions.
• Because the contents listed above are a relatively complete listing, tailoring is typically by deleting contents that are not necessary, appropriate, or useful.
• The team charter should be sufficiently specific to enable the team to get properly started, but not so limiting at the outset as to unnecessarily constrain the team’s approach towards achieving its goals. Thus, the team charter states what goals the team is to achieve, but not how the team is to achieve these goals.
• The team and their management should resolve any confusion, inconsistencies, or disagreements over the team charter as soon as is practical after the formation of the team.
• A team’s charter should be a living document that evolves and may require renegotiation with management if its scope or goals need to change.
• Ensure that the team goals are clear enough that the team can measure its progress towards them.
• Ensure that the team goals are consistent with the:
  • Goals and vision of the organization of which it is a part.
  • Mission of the endeavor to which it contributes.
• A team’s membership should:
  • Have an appropriate mix of knowledge, skills, and expertise to achieve its goals.
  • Be large enough to achieve its goals without being so large that team-internal coordination becomes excessively difficult.
  • Be stable enough to maintain continuity of effort and avoid excessive effort being expended to bring new members up to speed.
• Team roles should be clearly defined and agreed upon to:
  • Avoid conflict and stress.
  • Better enable team cooperation and collaboration.
• Norms of behavior should be explicitly documented and agreed upon to:
  • Minimize likelyhood of misinterpretation.
  • Be easier to enforce.

Conventions

A team charter is typically constrained by the following conventions:

• Work Flow
• Content and Format Standard
• XHTML Template
• MS Word Template
• Inspection Checklist

Examples

• Example Team Charter