Has anyone written a charter for programming documents? Any advice and/or examples are welcome!

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1) Clearly Defined Scope 2) Roles & Responsibilities 3)Definition of Success 4)definition of the risks 5)connection to company or business objectives

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Yeah, like Ray I approach these documents much like I’m writing the technical section for a grant. Start by considering the audience and write the overarching aims and impact of the proposed software in a way that will resonate with that audience. Then talk about prior work and existing packages that corroborate the feasibility of the proposed work. Talk about personnel and estimated effort to completion and provide a Gantt chart.

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Usually, one needs a project charter to get approval from the stakeholders and get the team on board with the vision. The document related to programming/development is not that different from any other sphere. Keep it concise, simple, and not too technical. At the same time, it has to cover the topics, important for the stakeholders.

My preferred structure is:
- Purpose (or Problem)
- Description (best is when it is up to 3 sentences and explains how the problem is solved)
- Objective (A SMART target you are trying to achieve here. It is important to keep it Timely and Measurable)
- Specification
- Budget
- Deliverables / Criteria of Success
- Scope
- Risks / Assumptions

Big corps with 10 layers of management like this structure a lot.

If you are interested in pitching or sustaining a project charter for StartUp, please look at the "Lean Canvas" - a very efficient tool, but aimed for small groups and consistent updates through time.

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1. Comprehensibility as per intended audience.
2. Well Structured with required information sufficient to explain the topic in writing.
3. Lots of Pictures, tables, graphs to capture the statistics, examples in best possible way
4. Visualisation and graphics for best story telling and presenting information graphically

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Would one of these serve as a useful basis for you? Two examples, anyhow -

1. https://pmbasics101.com/project-charter-example/
2. https://www.slideshare.net/100005232690054/software-project-management-project-charter

It seems difficult to find examples of charters for programming outside project management; by "charter" are you thinking a style guide maybe?

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The work Charter is an executive summary of the overall work of the team, either a time-bound or not time-bound,

In the case of the charter for Programming documents, you may consider the following things.

Mention brief intent describing the importance of the charter to the business or stakeholders. Bring out alignment to the bigger goal.
Description of the work, scope
Describe the approach strategy to achieve the results.
List measurable goals of the team. If it is not time-bound, consider giving an insight into 3-year, 1-year, and Quarter goals. If it is time-bound, define success for the team.
The deliverables or output of the team, list of documents in generic category/ with High-level classifications.
callout indirect benefits to stakeholders
stake holders basically who consume the services, who partner with you ( demand and supply side )
what are 2-3 challenges of the team,
Mention the overall budget and timeline. Mention how the tradeoff between cost, scope, and timeline.
Key milestones with dates
Resources and tools
Team members with roles and accountability with partner's details.
identification specifics e.g. team-name, team-id etc.

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I haven't and I wouldn't. The word charter doesn't seem to resonate with programmers. It has too much of a project management 'feel' to it. In my experience programmers view such documents as too high level. At least, that's how I interpret the term charter. In my charters I would include objectives, scope, and responsibilities. That is not the first interest of the programmers. The are more likely to be interested in requirements, coding standards and architecture. These items are often accompanied by success criteria and success metrics. In my experience only a subset of the programmers are interested in risks and issues (keep an eye on them, they are prime candidates to be elevated into project management).

Hope this help. Happy to clarify in more detail.

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I would suggest going to https://www.projectmanagement.com/ and you can find a lot of items and templates for the same.

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Start with the executive summary, and then answer - Why - What - How - Budget - Deliverables - Risks / Assumptions - Timeline

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At a high level, a charter is defining the Who, What, When, Where and Why for a project or program.

Without understanding the specific need you have when you say programming documents, I would say focus on those areas and speak to them to understand what will fit for what you are trying to accomplish.

Most charters are the start of a project or phase which will formally authorize the existence of the need and how a team will solve that need. Essentially establishing the objectives, high level scope, assumptions, deliverables, etc.

Know your audience, most of the time the charter is to help the Executives see the business value of a specific project so you should keep that in mind as you are putting yours together.

Has anyone written a charter for programming documents? Any advice and/or examples are welcome!

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