The Robotics Project Charter: What to Write Before You Buy

Why a charter beats a specification

Specifications describe the machine; a charter describes the decision. It fits on one page and answers five questions: what problem, what scope, what budget, who decides, and when the review happens. Projects without it tend to grow sideways — a second cell, an extra conveyor, a new software layer — until the original payback disappears.

The five lines

• Problem: the measurable pain, with today's number.
• Scope: what is in, and an explicit list of what is out.
• Budget: capital plus the first year of running cost, with a contingency line.
• Authority: who signs, who can approve change, and up to what amount.
• Review: the date and the data that will be used to judge the project.

Change control

Every project changes. The charter does not prevent change, it makes change visible: any request that moves scope or budget is logged with the date, the requester and the schedule impact. A short log is the difference between a controlled project and an argument six months later.