A Six Sigma project charter is the short document that opens the Define phase of a DMAIC project. It states the problem, the business reason for solving it, the goal, the scope, the team and the timeline, and it gives the project leader formal authority to use the organization’s resources. If you can fill in those six parts with measurable facts and get a sponsor to sign off, you have a charter. This guide shows how, with a worked example, a comparison with the business case, and the mistakes that stall projects.

TL;DR

• A charter normally holds six parts: problem or opportunity statement, business case, goals, scope, team and timeline, as ASQ describes for the Define phase.
• The business case justifies the investment. The charter authorizes the work and maps the route. Write the business case first and feed it into the charter.
• A good problem statement has a metric, a baseline, a location and a time frame, and it never names a cause or a solution.
• Keep it to one page, get the sponsor’s signature, and revisit it when facts change.
• The charter is required for both DMAIC and DMADV projects.

Table of Contents

• What a Six Sigma project charter does
• The six parts of a charter
• Project charter vs. business case
• How to write one, step by step
• Common mistakes
• Our perspective
• Charters and your career
• After the charter: what happens next
• FAQ
• Sources

What a Six Sigma project charter does

The charter is the foundational document of the Define phase in DMAIC, the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control cycle. ASQ lists its purposes as clarifying expectations, aligning the team with organizational priorities and authorizing the project leader to spend resources. It matters for both improvement paths: DMAIC is for improving an existing process, DMADV is for designing a new product or service, and the charter is required in both.

Think of it as a contract between the people doing the work and the person paying for it. The team promises a defined result by a defined date. The sponsor promises time, access and support. PMI describes the charter as a project’s best marketing tool, because it is where the selling of the project’s goals begins. When a project later drifts, a well-built charter works like a compass that points team members back to shared goals.

If you are new to the methodology itself, our walkthrough of the Six Sigma DMAIC Define stage covers where the charter fits among the other Define tools, and our page on Six Sigma project charters gives a shorter overview.

The six parts of a charter

Many templates add a few extras: risks, assumptions, constraints, budget and the customer requirement the project serves. Add them when they help. Do not add them to fill a form.

Problem statement

This is the part people get wrong most often. A problem statement describes the current pain in numbers and stops there. It does not blame a cause (“because the night shift is careless”) and it does not sneak in a fix (“we need new software”). Both of those belong to the Analyze and Improve phases, after data has spoken.

Use this pattern: [Metric] for [process] at [location] was [baseline] during [period], against a target of [target], resulting in [impact].

Three hypothetical examples, written to show the pattern:

• Hospital discharge: “From January to June, 38% of patients at the Riverside campus were discharged after the 2 p.m. target, against a goal of 15%, holding up an average of 11 emergency department admissions a day.”
• Invoicing: “In the last quarter, 14% of customer invoices from the Dallas billing center contained at least one error, causing 620 disputes and an average of 9 extra days to collect payment.”
• Manufacturing: “Line 3 scrapped 4.2% of machined housings in the past 12 months, against a plant target of 1.5%, costing roughly $310,000 in material and rework.”

Notice what each one includes: a measurable defect, a baseline, a time frame and a consequence. Notice also what is missing: a cause and a remedy.

Business case

The business case inside a charter is a few sentences, not a financial model. State what the problem costs or what the opportunity is worth, and connect it to something leadership already cares about: margin, customer retention, safety, regulatory exposure, capacity. Say how you will measure the gain (hard savings, cost avoidance, revenue, cycle time).

For a sense of scale, a 2023 figure from Gitnux’s certification statistics roundup puts the average saving from a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt project at $230,000. Treat that as an industry average, not a promise: your own baseline data should drive your estimate.

Goal statement

Make it specific, measurable and time-bound. “Reduce invoice errors from 14% to 5% or lower by 30 September” works. “Improve billing accuracy” does not. Match the goal to the metric in the problem statement, and avoid targets set by wishful thinking. If the baseline is not yet reliable, say the goal will be confirmed after the Measure phase.

Scope

Scope is where charters earn their keep. Define where the process starts and where it ends, which products, sites or customer groups are covered, and, just as important, what is out. This is how you prevent scope creep: the charter says not only what the team will do but also what it will not touch. Out-of-scope lists are uncomfortable to write, and that is exactly why they save so many arguments later.

Team and timeline

Name the sponsor (sometimes called the Champion), the project leader, the process owner and the core members, with the share of their time the project needs. Then set milestone dates for each DMAIC phase. If a team member’s manager has not agreed to release that time, the timeline is fiction. Settle it now, not in week six.

Project charter vs. business case

The two documents are easy to confuse because they overlap. The difference is in the job each one does.

PMI’s guidance on business analysis advises treating the business case as a foundational input to the charter, and warns that starting a charter without a clear, measurable business case invites projects with no strategic alignment or financial backing. Asana’s overview makes a similar split: the charter is the lighter document, closer to an elevator pitch than a full business case.

In a Six Sigma project the business case is also a section of the charter, in condensed form. So you can be right in either direction: the full business case sits upstream, and its summary sits inside the charter. When someone asks “which do I write first,” the answer is the business case.

How to write one, step by step

1. Gather before you draft. Talk to the process owner, the people who do the work and the customers of the process. Pull a few weeks of data. PMI’s writers note that rushing this stage is a common mistake, and that time spent on stakeholder discussions up front cuts the clarification meetings later and gets everyone to agree on measurable success criteria.
2. Write the problem statement. Use the pattern above. Test it by asking whether two people reading it would picture the same defect.
3. Size the business impact. Convert the defect into money, hours or customer outcomes. Ask finance to check the numbers if the project is large.
4. Set the goal. Same metric as the problem, with a target and a date.
5. Draw the scope boundaries. Name the first and last step of the process, then list what is excluded.
6. Assign the team and schedule. Confirm time commitments with each person’s manager.
7. Get the signature. Review the draft with the sponsor, resolve disagreements in the room and record approval.
8. Keep it alive. If the Measure phase shows the baseline was wrong or the scope was too wide, update the charter and get the sponsor to re-approve it.

A worked example

Here is a condensed charter for a hypothetical regional parts distributor.

• Problem: In the past six months, 9.5% of orders shipped from the Columbus warehouse arrived after the promised date, against a target of 3%, producing 410 customer complaints.
• Business case: Late shipments put two of our top ten accounts at risk and cost an estimated $180,000 a year in expedited freight and credits.
• Goal: Reduce late shipments from 9.5% to 3% or lower within six months of project start.
• Scope: From order release to carrier pickup at Columbus. Out of scope: supplier lead times, carrier performance after pickup, the order entry system.
• Team: Sponsor, the VP of operations. Leader, a Green Belt from distribution. Members from picking, packing, shipping and customer service, each at roughly 10% of their time.
• Timeline: Define by 15 November, Measure by 20 December, Analyze by 31 January, Improve by 15 March, Control by 30 April.

The whole thing fits on one page, and every line can be checked against data. That is the standard to aim for.

Common mistakes

• A solution disguised as a problem. “We need a warehouse management system” is a decision, not a problem statement.
• A goal with no baseline. If you cannot say where you are, you cannot say what improvement means.
• Scope that covers the whole company. Narrow it until a small team can finish within a few months.
• No signature, no authority. A charter nobody with budget has endorsed is only a wish list.
• Treating the template as the point. Experienced project managers say that explicit authorization matters more than the format. According to PMI’s discussion of charters, a sponsor’s clear backing in an e-mail or meeting minutes can effectively charter a project. Still, for a Six Sigma project that will be audited, reviewed by a Master Black Belt or used for belt certification, a written one-page charter is the safer habit.

Our perspective

We have trained professionals in process improvement for years, and the pattern we see most is this: people treat the charter as paperwork to finish before the real work starts. It is the real work. A team that spends a few extra days getting the problem statement, the scope and the sponsor’s commitment right moves faster through Measure and Analyze, because nobody is arguing about what the project is.

Our advice is to write the problem statement last, not first. Draft a rough version, collect a little data, then rewrite it with real numbers. Share it with the people who live inside the process before the sponsor sees it. If they say “that’s not how it works,” you have saved yourself months.

And learn the charter by doing one. Whatever your belt level, a charter for a real problem at your own workplace teaches more than any template.

— David Lovell

Charters and your career

Writing a charter is a skill employers can see. Hiring data from Axial Search suggests Lean Six Sigma Black Belt credentials are sought for process improvement and organizational change roles, while PMP appears more in digital transformation postings. Analysts quoted in another Axial piece describe the two as complementary, not rivals: PMP for governance and program leadership, Six Sigma for analytical tools that find and remove defects. Our comparison of Six Sigma or PMP helps you choose by career path.

If you want to practice charters inside a structured curriculum, our Six Sigma certification package bundles study materials and the certification exam in a single one-time fee, online and self-paced. You can also browse the full range of programs on the MSI homepage, and the Six Sigma definitions page is a handy glossary while you learn the vocabulary.

After the charter: what happens next

Once the sponsor signs, the team moves through the rest of the cycle. In Measure you validate the baseline and the data collection plan, in Analyze you test causes, in Improve you pilot solutions and in Control you lock the gains in. Each stage has its own guide: Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. Return to the charter at each tollgate and ask whether the problem, goal and scope still match what the data shows. The charter is a living contract, and teams that revisit it stay aligned with their sponsors.

FAQ

What is the difference between a project charter and a business case?

The business case argues that the investment is worth making, using ROI and cost-benefit analysis. The charter authorizes the approved project and sets out its goal, scope, team and timeline. Write the business case first, then condense it into the charter.

How long should a Six Sigma project charter be?

One page is the usual target. It should be long enough to hold the six core parts with real numbers and short enough that a sponsor will actually read it. Put supporting analysis in an appendix.

Who signs a Six Sigma project charter?

The sponsor or Champion approves it, and the project leader and process owner usually sign too. The signature matters because it records authority over time, people and budget, which is the main reason the document exists.

Do I need a charter for every Six Sigma project?

Yes, for DMAIC and DMADV alike, according to ASQ. The format can be light on small projects, but the problem, goal, scope and sponsor’s authorization should always be written down.

Can the problem statement include the cause?

No. State the defect, its size and its impact. Causes are identified in the Analyze phase with data, and naming one early biases the whole project.

Sources

• ASQ: DMAIC process
• PMI: The charter
• PMI: And away we go
• PMI: Project management and business analysis
• Asana: Business case
• Axial Search: Digital transformation roles
• Axial Search: Process automation jobs
• Gitnux: Certification industry statistics

Recommended

• Six Sigma Definitions
• Define Six Sigma Project Team
• Six Sigma DMAIC – Define Stage
• Six Sigma DMAIC – Control Stage