Project Charters

The charter is the foundational document that describes the rationale, goals, plan of work, resources needed, terms and conditions, and outcomes of a Center for Digital Humanities at Princeton (CDH) project. Charters are written by core members of a project team in a series of planning meetings taking place over the course of a month. The planning process is intensive, collaborative and requires substantial input from everyone on a team. Charters serve as formalized agreements among all team members on such crucial questions as scope, technical design, infrastructural needs, and success criteria.

A draft of each project charter is peer-reviewed by all CDH staff, and optionally by additional partners or stakeholders, at a “design review” before the start of project work. It is circulated at least one week before the review takes place in an open comment period. Questions and concerns from this period may be raised at the design review. Project teams have two weeks after the design review to address any issues raised and make any requested changes. Project work only begins (and funds are released) once the charter has been finalized and signed by the Project Director (PI) and the CDH Faculty Director. Charters are amended as necessary throughout the project lifecycle to document major changes and note when “Built by CDH” Software Warranty and “Built by CDH” Long Term Service Agreement take effect, and serve as part of the CDH project archive.

CDH charters and their planning documents exist in several forms as we have refined them over the years and tailored them to the several types of projects we have supported.

Sample Charters

CDH Project Charter – Princeton Geniza Project 2020-2021. (2020)
Charter for research partnership on Pinceton Geniza Project. CDH Development & Design Team led the planning and implementation.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4081714

CDH Project Charter — Princeton Ethiopian Miracles of Mary 2019-20. (2019)
Charter for continuing data work and exploratory implementation work for Princeton Ethiopian Miracles of Mary. CDH Development & Design Team actively involved in planning and implementation.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3359178

CDH Project Charter — Princeton Prosody Archive 2017-18. (2017). Charter for the most recent development phase of Princeton Prosody Archive. CDH Development & Design Team actively involved in planning and implementation.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3359172

CDH Project Charter — bitKlavier 2017-18. (2017)
bitKlavier. CDH staff consulted on the project, but were not involved in the implementation.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3359176

CDH Project Charter — Derrida’s Margins 2016-17. (2016)
Derrida’s Margins; this charter was written before the CDH Development & Design Team had been formed.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3359144

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