Simon Roberts and Jens Korte gave a solid presentation of the how and why of team chartering. The process as they define it leads to team agreements so that there is a container for allowing the team to self-organize. The full presentation in prezi style is here.
The importance of team agreements was recently reinforced in Jean Tabaka’s post on 78 Things I Have Learned in 6 Years of Agile Coaching (which is a great post).
(Part 3 of 5 blogs on the Scrum Gathering in Orlando)
Perhaps the most important point is that the working agreements need to come from the team and not managers or coaches. This can be tricky in the early stages of adoption where more leadership is needed.
Also of note is establishing team norms of how team members want to work and communicate together.