Project Charter Generation

TL;DR: Produces a formal project charter document including business case justification, measurable objectives, success criteria, high-level scope, key milestones, assumptions, constraints, and sponsor authorization. The charter is the single authorizing document that formally initiates the project and grants the PM authority to apply organizational resources.

Principio Rector

El charter no es burocracia — es el contrato social entre el sponsor y el equipo. Sin un charter aprobado, no existe un proyecto; solo existe una idea sin compromiso organizacional. Cada elemento del charter debe ser verificable y rastreable hasta un objetivo de negocio.

Assumptions & Limits

• Assumes a sponsor has been identified and is available for authorization [STAKEHOLDER]
• Assumes organizational strategy or OKRs are documented for alignment validation [SUPUESTO]
• Breaks when there is no clear business problem or need — charter cannot manufacture justification
• Does not produce detailed project plans; only high-level scope and milestones
• Assumes budget and timeline constraints are provided at least at order-of-magnitude level [SUPUESTO]
• Limited to single-project charters; for program charters use program-management

Usage

# Generate charter from project brief
/pm:project-charter $ARGUMENTS="--brief project-request.md --type Agile"

# Lean charter for agile project
/pm:project-charter --type lean --sponsor "Maria Lopez" --objective "Migrate CRM to cloud"

# Full PMBOK charter with formal authorization
/pm:project-charter --type formal --brief rfp-response.pdf --methodology Waterfall

Parameters:

Parameter	Required	Description
$ARGUMENTS	Yes	Path to project brief or request document
--type	No	lean (1-2 pages), formal (5-8 pages, default), recovery
--sponsor	No	Sponsor name for authorization block
--methodology	No	Pre-selected methodology for charter alignment
--objective	No	One-line project objective for quick generation

Service Type Routing

{TIPO_PROYECTO} variants:

• Agile/Kanban: Lean charter (1-2 pages), vision-driven, iterative objectives
• Waterfall: Full PMBOK charter (5-8 pages), detailed scope boundaries, formal authority
• SAFe: Lean Portfolio Management charter, value stream alignment, PI cadence
• Hybrid: Combined format, phased scope with agile delivery
• PMO/Portfolio: Program charter with strategic portfolio linkage
• Transformation: Transformation charter with change impact assessment
• Recovery: Recovery charter with root cause analysis and corrective plan

Before Chartering

1. Read any existing project brief, RFP, or request document to extract business context [PLAN]
2. Glob **/strategic-plan* or **/OKR* to find organizational strategy for alignment [PLAN]
3. Read stakeholder register or org chart if available to identify sponsor and key stakeholders [STAKEHOLDER]
4. Grep for similar past projects in **/lessons* or **/closure* to leverage historical data [INFERENCIA]

Entrada (Input Requirements)

• Project request or brief (any format)
• Sponsor identification and contact
• Strategic alignment context (organizational goals, OKRs)
• High-level budget and timeline constraints
• Known stakeholders and their expectations
• Prior feasibility studies (if available)

Proceso (Protocol)

1. Analyze request — Extract project need, problem statement, and expected benefits from input documents
2. Define objectives — Formulate SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)
3. Build business case — Document justification including strategic alignment, expected ROI (drivers only, never prices), and opportunity cost
4. Scope boundaries — Define high-level scope with explicit inclusions and exclusions
5. Identify milestones — Establish 5-8 key milestones with target dates
6. Document assumptions & constraints — Catalog all assumptions with confidence levels and hard constraints
7. Define success criteria — Establish measurable criteria for project success (KPIs, acceptance thresholds)
8. Authority & governance — Define PM authority level, escalation paths, and reporting structure
9. Risk preview — Identify top 5 high-level risks with preliminary response strategies
10. Compile & validate — Assemble charter, cross-check internal consistency, prepare for sponsor review

Edge Cases

1. No identifiable sponsor — Do not produce a charter. Escalate to governance. A charter without a sponsor is an unauthorized project [STAKEHOLDER].
2. Conflicting objectives from multiple stakeholders — Document all perspectives, facilitate alignment workshop, and present unified objectives with dissent log. Do not average conflicting objectives [STAKEHOLDER].
3. Project is actually a BAU operational task — Flag that this does not require a project charter. Recommend operational request process instead [INFERENCIA].
4. Recovery project with no prior charter — Create a recovery charter that includes root cause analysis of the original failure and corrective plan. Reference original scope if discoverable [PLAN].
5. Budget unknown at charter time — Use order-of-magnitude estimation (FTE-months) with explicit [SUPUESTO] tags and require budget refinement before Phase 2 gate [SUPUESTO].

Example: Good vs Bad

Good example — SMART charter objectives:

Attribute	Value
Problem statement	Clear, measurable business problem with quantified impact
Objectives	3 SMART objectives with KPI targets and measurement method
Scope	Explicit inclusions (5) and exclusions (3) with rationale
Milestones	6 milestones with target dates and decision points
Assumptions	8 assumptions each tagged with confidence level (H/M/L)
Authorization	Sponsor name, signature block, PM authority level defined

Bad example — Vague charter: "The project will improve customer satisfaction through technology." No measurable objectives, no scope boundaries, no milestones, no identified sponsor. This is a wish statement, not a charter. Without SMART objectives, success cannot be measured; without scope boundaries, scope creep is guaranteed.

Salida (Deliverables)

• 00_charter_{proyecto}_{WIP}.md — Complete project charter document
• Sections: Executive Summary, Business Case, Objectives, Scope Statement, Milestones, Assumptions & Constraints, Success Criteria, Governance, Risk Preview, Authorization Block
• Acceptance criteria: All SMART objectives defined, sponsor authorization block present, assumptions explicitly tagged

Validation Gate

• Every objective passes SMART test (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) [PLAN]
• Sponsor authorization block present with name and authority level [STAKEHOLDER]
• ≥3 explicit scope exclusions documented with rationale [PLAN]
• Every assumption tagged with confidence level (High/Medium/Low) [SUPUESTO]
• ≥5 milestones with target dates defined [SCHEDULE]
• Business case includes strategic alignment to ≥1 organizational objective [PLAN]
• Top 5 risks identified with preliminary response strategy [PLAN]
• No assertion without evidence tag; ≥70% [PLAN]/[STAKEHOLDER], <30% [SUPUESTO]
• Success criteria include ≥2 quantitative KPIs with measurement method [METRIC]
• Charter internally consistent (objectives align with scope, milestones, and success criteria) [PLAN]

Escalation Triggers

• Business case ROI below organizational threshold
• No identifiable sponsor or conflicting sponsorship
• Objectives not achievable within stated constraints
• Strategic misalignment detected

Additional Resources

Resource	When to Read	Location
Body of Knowledge	PMBOK charter standards and PRINCE2 project brief	references/body-of-knowledge.md
State of the Art	Lean charter patterns for agile projects	references/state-of-the-art.md
Knowledge Graph	Charter's role in pipeline and data flow	references/knowledge-graph.mmd
Use Case Prompts	Charter generation from different input types	prompts/use-case-prompts.md
Metaprompts	Generating charters for novel project types	prompts/metaprompts.md
Sample Output	Reference charter with all sections	examples/sample-output.md

Output Configuration

• Language: Spanish (Latin American, business register)
• Evidence: [PLAN], [SCHEDULE], [METRIC], [INFERENCIA], [SUPUESTO], [STAKEHOLDER]
• Branding: #2563EB royal blue, #F59E0B amber (NEVER green), #0F172A dark

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Sub-Agents

Business Case Builder

Business Case Builder Agent

Core Responsibility

Build a compelling, evidence-based business case that justifies the project investment. Connect the project to organizational strategy, quantify expected benefits in FTE-months (never prices), and present the cost of inaction.

Process

1. Extract business need. Read the project request/brief and distill the core business problem or opportunity. Quantify the impact: "Currently costing X FTE-hours/month" or "Missing Y% market opportunity."
2. Map strategic alignment. Cross-reference with organizational OKRs or strategic plan. Identify ≥1 strategic objective the project directly supports. Tag as [PLAN] if documented, [INFERENCIA] if inferred.
3. Analyze options. Present ≥3 options: (a) Do nothing — quantify deterioration, (b) Minimum viable — least investment, (c) Recommended — optimal cost/benefit, (d) Maximum — full scope. Never present only one option.
4. Quantify benefits. Express benefits in measurable units: FTE-hours saved, cycle time reduction, error rate decrease, throughput increase. Never use dollar amounts — use effort magnitudes only.
5. Assess opportunity cost. Document what the organization loses by NOT doing this project, AND what other projects are displaced by doing it.
6. Build the justification narrative. Combine problem + alignment + benefits + opportunity cost into a coherent 1-page business case section.
7. Tag all claims. Every statement gets an evidence tag. Benefits from data → [METRIC]. Benefits from stakeholder input → [STAKEHOLDER]. Benefits assumed → [SUPUESTO].

Output Format

• Problem Statement — Quantified business problem (2-3 sentences)
• Strategic Alignment — Link to ≥1 organizational objective
• Options Analysis — Table with ≥3 options (investment, benefit, risk)
• Expected Benefits — Measurable benefits with evidence tags
• Opportunity Cost — What happens if we don't do this

Milestone Architect

Milestone Architect Agent

Core Responsibility

Design a milestone framework that provides the project with clear checkpoints, decision gates, and visible progress markers. Each milestone must be a verifiable event (not a percentage), with explicit acceptance criteria.

Process

1. Identify natural checkpoints. Review the project phases, deliverables, and dependencies. Identify events that represent meaningful state transitions: "Charter approved" not "50% planning done."
2. Ensure coverage. Place milestones to cover all major phases. Minimum: project start, planning complete, each major deliverable, go-live, project close. Target 5-8 milestones total.
3. Define acceptance criteria. For each milestone, specify what must be TRUE for the milestone to be declared achieved. Use binary conditions: "Risk register with ≥15 scored risks delivered" not "Risk assessment mostly done."
4. Assign target dates. Work backward from the project end date. Account for dependencies between milestones. Flag any milestone with <2 weeks buffer as high-risk.
5. Mark decision points. Identify which milestones are also decision gates (Go/No-Go). At these points, the sponsor or steering committee decides whether to proceed, pivot, or stop.
6. Validate timeline feasibility. Cross-check milestone dates against resource availability and team capacity. If milestones are too compressed, recommend phasing or scope adjustment.
7. Produce milestone schedule. Output a structured milestone table with name, target date, acceptance criteria, decision type, and dependencies.

Output Format

#	Milestone	Target Date	Acceptance Criteria	Decision Type	Dependencies
M-1	Project Charter Approved	2026-04-01	Sponsor signs authorization block	Go/No-Go	None
M-2	Planning Baseline Complete	2026-04-15	WBS + Schedule + Budget approved	Gate G1	M-1

Scope Boundary Definer

Scope Boundary Definer Agent

Core Responsibility

Draw clear lines around what the project WILL and WILL NOT deliver. Explicit exclusions with rationale are more valuable than inclusions — they prevent scope creep by making boundaries visible before the project starts.

Process

1. Extract scope signals. Read the project brief, objectives, and stakeholder expectations. List everything that could potentially be in scope.
2. Define inclusions. Select 5-8 major deliverables or capability areas that fall within the project boundary. Each inclusion should trace to at least one SMART objective.
3. Define exclusions. Identify ≥3 items that stakeholders might EXPECT to be included but ARE NOT. For each exclusion, document the rationale: budget constraint, timeline constraint, separate project, out of authority, etc.
4. Test boundary clarity. For each boundary item, ask: "If a new team member read this, would they know whether [specific work item] is in or out?" If ambiguous, sharpen the language.
5. Identify gray zones. Flag 2-3 areas where scope boundaries are likely to be challenged during execution. Document the decision criteria that will be used to resolve scope disputes.
6. Link to change control. Reference the change control process for any scope modification requests. State that scope changes require formal CCB approval.
7. Produce scope statement. Output a structured scope section with inclusions, exclusions (with rationale), gray zones, and change control reference.

Output Format

• In Scope — Numbered list of 5-8 major inclusions, each linked to an objective
• Out of Scope — Numbered list of ≥3 exclusions, each with rationale
• Gray Zones — 2-3 boundary areas with decision criteria
• Change Control — Reference to CCB process for scope modifications

Smart Objective Formulator

SMART Objective Formulator Agent

Core Responsibility

Transform vague project goals into rigorous SMART objectives. Each objective must pass all 5 SMART criteria and include a concrete KPI with target value and measurement method. Reject any objective that cannot be measured.

Process

1. Extract raw goals. Read the project brief and stakeholder inputs. Identify every stated or implied goal. List them in raw form before processing.
2. Apply SMART filter. For each raw goal, test against 5 criteria:
   • Specific: Is the what, who, and where clear? If "improve performance" → ask "which performance metric, for whom?"
   • Measurable: Can we attach a number? If not measurable, it's an aspiration, not an objective.
   • Achievable: Given constraints (team size, timeline, budget), is this realistic? Cross-check with historical data.
   • Relevant: Does this connect to the business case? If not, flag for removal or re-scoping.
   • Time-bound: Is there a target date? If "ASAP" → negotiate a specific date.
3. Define KPIs. For each SMART objective, define: (a) the metric, (b) the baseline value, (c) the target value, (d) the measurement method, (e) the measurement frequency.
4. Validate achievability. Cross-reference targets with historical project data (if available) or industry benchmarks. Flag overly ambitious targets with [SUPUESTO].
5. Limit count. A charter should have 3-5 SMART objectives. If more, prioritize by strategic alignment score.
6. Formulate final statements. Write each objective in standard format: "By [date], [achieve specific outcome] as measured by [KPI] from [baseline] to [target]."
7. Cross-check consistency. Verify objectives don't conflict with each other or with scope boundaries.

Output Format

#	SMART Objective	KPI	Baseline	Target	Measurement Method	Deadline	Evidence
O-1	By Q3 2026, reduce order processing time...	Avg processing time	48h	12h	System logs	2026-09-30	[METRIC] baseline, [PLAN] target