Team charter template

Starting a new project without first coordinating your team around goals, processes, and outcomes is often a recipe for disaster. Without buy-in from key stakeholders, team members might disagree on responsibilities, decision-making authority, or even the team's mission. A team charter template addresses this by creating a single source of truth. It outlines team goals, defines each member’s role, and sets ground rules for collaboration. Whether you're forming a new team or realigning an existing one, this simple team charter template helps you define success and work toward it together.

Who benefits from team charter templates?

Creating a team charter template helps you define a team’s structure, project deliverables, and core values before any work begins. By documenting expectations and workflows early, you can concentrate on implementing plans and keeping your project on track.

Team leaders

Leaders use team charters to unify people around their mission, responsibilities, and values. These templates make onboarding easier, spotlight shared goals, and resolve friction before it grows. 

Cross-functional teams

When departments collaborate, a team charter template acts as a playbook for how work is conducted. It defines ownership, outlines communication strategies, and sets decision-making rules, which encourage better cooperation across departments.

New members

A team charter shows new hires how the group operates. Instead of learning through trial and error, they can reference a guide that explains expectations and workflows. 

Stakeholders and sponsors

Similarly, team charters provide visibility to sponsors and stakeholders into the group’s purpose, milestones, and responsibilities. The charter summarizes priorities, decision-makers, and project progress in one accessible place. 

Why use Asana's team charter template

A team charter template in Asana is more than a document; it's a collaborative workspace you can update in real time. Use it to reduce miscommunication, build trust, and coordinate every member of the team.

Use Asana’s team charter template to:

• Coordinate team goals, values, and mission

• Define team member roles, skill sets, and decision-making processes

• Establish team norms, workflows, and communication guidelines

• Document how you'll handle conflict resolution and continuous improvement

How to use this team charter template

This team charter template in Asana is organized into pre-defined sections and customizable task rows. Each section represents a core organizational component, while each task allows you to assign responsibility, set deadlines, and store project-specific information. 

Step 1: Fill in team information

Start by listing your core project team members. For each member, create a task with their name and role (e.g., “Jordan — Team Lead”) in the Assignee column. Use the Due Date field for deadlines, timelines, or expected start dates. If you plan to revisit responsibilities regularly, record that in the Review Frequency column. 

Step 2: Write your mission and purpose

Use this section to define your team's purpose. Create an inspiring mission statement that provides guidance and rallies your team around a common purpose.

Break the section into tasks like “Team Purpose,” “North Star,” and “Stakeholder” to divide ownership. Assign writers or reviewers, then prioritize urgent items using the Priority field.

Step 3: Outline goals and success metrics

List measurable team goals as tasks, like “Launch v1 by Dec 10” or “Increase retention by 5%”. Define KPIs or OKRs in the task description or as Custom Fields to standardize how you measure success.

Use the Priority column to flag high-stakes goals and the Risk Level to highlight potential blockers. You can also use milestones in Asana as visible markers to celebrate progress.

Step 4: Assign roles and responsibilities

Create one task per team member to describe their responsibilities. Use the task description to summarize each role. Tag the Assignee so everyone knows who owns what. For budget-sensitive roles, fill in the Budget Allocation column to capture financial responsibility.

If your team uses RACI or DACI models, add role tags or Custom Fields to indicate who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed. 

Step 5: Define your operating principles

List team norms, decision-making rules, and communication preferences. For example, you might include “Daily standups at 9 a.m.,” or “Decisions require two-person approval.” Each principle can be a task with an assigned owner. Use the Status column to indicate which tasks your team is working on or still discussing.

Step 6: Identify resources and constraints

Use this section to document anything that could impact the team’s ability to deliver. Add constraints like “Limited IT support” or “Approval required for vendor tools” as individual tasks.

You can also list available resources, like “Access to Salesforce,” or “Dedicated design support.” Use Risk Level to highlight blockers, and log Budget Allocation where applicable.

Asana team-building features

Asana features make your team charter a living, collaborative document. Use them to assign ownership, track progress, and revisit goals as your project evolves. We’ve included a few of our favorites below, but you can review a list of all features for more inspiration.

Custom fields 

Add custom fields for roles, team values, communication tools, or approval processes. These help sort and filter tasks as your workflow grows.

Project views

Choose between list, board, timeline, and calendar views to schedule key milestones and project checkpoints. Everyone can see when work is due and how tasks connect.

Task assignees 

Assign team members to each charter section, like writing the mission statement or defining workflows.

Dependencies 

Use dependencies to show which tasks rely on others, helping teams plan around bottlenecks.

Approvals 

Do you need stakeholder sign-off on your final team charter? Add approval fields to streamline feedback and confirmation.

Recommended integrations for team charter templates

Integrations connect your team charter template with the tools your group already uses every day. They help you share updates, manage files, and keep conversations tied to action without switching between apps. Browse the complete list in the Asana app hub.

Slack

Turn messages and ideas into actionable tasks without leaving Slack. 

Google Drive

Attach documents, charters, and reference materials so everyone has the latest version in one place.

Jira Cloud

Connect Asana with Jira to link project planning and development tasks.

Zoom

Schedule Zoom calls, interviews, and standups directly from Asana.

Google Calendar 

Sync meetings, check-ins, and review cycles so everyone can see deadlines and discussions.

FAQs about team charter templates