TOPIC: Who signs the Project Charter?

I understnad the concept here. But, when searching the net, I found different answers as per my understanding, check this for example:

www.simuladopmp.com.br/artigos/20-resolv...-simuladas-em-ingles

You are the project manager for the Silver project. You have been brought on to this project in the very early stages and you have been asked to write the charter for it. Over the past 10 days you have met with a number of stakeholders, received their input and you are now ready to have the charter signed. You have the charter in your hand and you are leaving your office. Who will you go see for the signature?

A.) Project Sponsor
B.) The Chief Executive Officer of your company
C.) All Project Stakeholders
D.) The Project Management Team

As per my understanding from PM PrepCast, answer A is correct. But, the answer provided is B !

Appreciate your feedback.

Tarek.

Fascinating!

If I'm not completely wrong, then I am the original author of this question. In fact, I believe I am the author of ALL the questions that are posted on that website. Someone simply took them and posted them as their own. Talk about Code of Ethics....

In any case. This particular question was for PMBOK Guide 3 before the clarification about this topic was posted in PMBOK 4. My argument at the time was, that the CEO has the highest power in the company and should therefore sign it.

The question was later updated to read as follows:

Question 5: Who should sign the Project Charter?

A.) The Project Manager.
B.) A project initiator external to the project organization.
C.) The CEO.
D.) The most senior project team member.

B.) According to the PMBOK® Guide, “projects are authorized by someone external to the project such as a sponsor, PMO, or portfolio steering committee.”

Hi Fichtner,
It was indeed well clarified by you. I just have a doubt on this now. When we say project sponsor external to the project organisation signs up project charter .. Is he the one who doesn't belong to the PM's project performing organisation? Please clarify this ..I jus started to prepare for PMP.

Fathima wrote: Hi Fichtner,
It was indeed well clarified by you. I just have a doubt on this now. When we say project sponsor external to the project organisation signs up project charter .. Is he the one who doesn't belong to the PM's project performing organisation? Please clarify this ..I jus started to prepare for PMP.

Hi Fathima,

I think there is a slight misunderstanding - the sponsor is external to the project which does not mean he is necessarily external to the project organisation. The sponsor can still be someone who is part of the project organisation and still be an external entity to the project.

Hope this clarifies your doubt.

if you referred to the change request statement. Who need to sign to approval that? Project manager, customers and sponsor, why? As they also be the persons in most of the cases signed the charter as well. That is just be my feeling.

I am studying for the PMP exam and to me the answers to this question continue to be unclear and inconsistent. In part, this is due to PMI itself. PMBOK 5th edition (page 66) states "[the project charter]...provides a well-defined project start...and a direct way for SENIOR MANAGEMENT to formally accept and commit to the project." Yet, PMI's "PMI PMP Examination Content Online - June 2015" (page 5) states "Obtain project charter approval from the SPONSOR." The only logical way to reconcile these two different answers is to assume that a sponsor is always a member of senior management. The problem I've encountered with some practice exams is that both 'senior management' and 'sponsor' were listed among the choices. I've been studying for four months and I'm still not confident of the correct answer.

The question i saw on other website -
Typically signing of project charter is the responsibility of
Project Sponsor
Senior Management
Project Manager
Project stake-holders

Would that be project sponsor or senior management? that's the confusion.

thanks
hitesh

I would say Project Sponsor.......

Lets try to solve this question by finding, who can not first:
CEO ... may be... but shouldn't spend his/her time on deciding strategies of companies being top executive, technically he owns all projects, failure or success of any project in which company funds are used reflect on him/her, right? So yes CEO can either sign or delegate responsibility to some VP/Manager etc in organization.
All project stakeholders... but isn't is a list too wide a group... any one that influences project is a stakeholder... not even key stakeholder... all stakeholders!!
Project management team- Formed only after project goes live along with PM, so no.
Project sponser is the key supported(can be a group too) of the need that give rise to the project and has capability to finance the project or influence financing directly. Has keen interest in project. Can make or break project. Said all this he may be interested in knowing status of milestones. Sponser need to be kept interested in project to ensure his support. So yes he can be asked to sign ... but he it is CEO who is directly or indirectly owns responsibility of the authorization of the project. Sponser may make or break project but CEO is accountable (directly or indirectly).

Hence answer is CEO.

I believe the correct answer would have to be project sponsor. This is because, the way PMP exam questions are written, the most suitable answer is always the correct answer. In this question, the senior manager may not always be the project sponsor, but the project sponsor will always be a senior manager. If you review the question like that, then your answer should be "Project Sponsor".