charter

1# charter
2 
3A charter is one markdown file that says what to deliver and how everyone will know it was
4delivered. A task is named by its charter
5filename. `charter` writes it; `deliver` carries a released charter out. Any kind of project
6uses it: software, documents, campaigns, research, operations. The owner is whoever owns the
7work (often the user); speak to them in the language they use.
8 
9Prerequisites: none to use it; its selftest needs bash and python3.
10 
11Read `references/template.md` for the file layout and `references/questions.md` before asking
12the owner anything.
13 
14## Rules that keep a charter useful
15 
16- Preserve the owner's words and decisions. Never invent a decision, a fact or a requirement.
17  A missing choice that would change the outcome is asked once, one question at a time, at the
18  end of a message; independent work continues while it waits, and silence is not approval.
19- Read the existing work first (files, documents, data, earlier decisions). Ask nothing they
20  already answer.
21- Every success check names what will be observed, where, and how, and can be answered pass or
22  fail by a real run or inspection. The expected result comes from the requirement or from
23  independent data, never from pasting the program's own output. For a defect, the check
24  reproduces the defect first.
25- Before adding a precondition, check, section or approval step, name the failure it detects
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