Project Roles and Responsibilities
There are many groups of people
involved in both the project and project management lifecycles.
The Project Team is the group
responsible for planning and executing the project. It consists of a Project
Manager and a variable number of Project Team members, who are brought in to
deliver their tasks according to the project schedule.
·
The Project Manager is the person responsible for
ensuring that the Project Team completes the project. The Project Manager
develops the Project Plan with the team and manages the team’s performance of
project tasks. It is also the responsibility of the Project Manager to secure
acceptance and approval of deliverables from the Project Sponsor and
Stakeholders. The Project Manager is responsible for communication, including
status reporting, risk management, escalation of issues that cannot be resolved
in the team, and, in general, making sure the project is delivered in budget,
on schedule, and within scope.
·
The Project Team Members are responsible
for executing tasks and producing deliverables as outlined in the Project Plan
and directed by the Project Manager, at whatever level of effort or
participation has been defined for them.
·
On larger projects, some Project Team members
may serve as Team Leads, providing task and technical
leadership, and sometimes maintaining a portion of the project plan.
The Executive Sponsor is a manager
with demonstrable interest in the outcome of the project who is ultimately
responsible for securing spending authority and resources for the project.
Ideally, the Executive Sponsor should be the highest-ranking manager possible,
in proportion to the project size and scope. The Executive Sponsor acts as a
vocal and visible champion, legitimizes the project’s goals and objectives,
keeps abreast of major project activities, and is the ultimate decision-maker
for the project. The Executive Sponsor provides support for the Project Sponsor
and/or Project Director and Project Manager and has final approval of all scope
changes, and signs off on approvals to proceed to each succeeding project
phase. The Executive Sponsor may elect to delegate some of the above
responsibilities to the Project Sponsor and/or Project Director.
The Project Sponsor and/or Project Director is
a manager with demonstrable interest in the outcome of the project who is
responsible for securing spending authority and resources for the project. The
Project Sponsor acts as a vocal and visible champion, legitimizes the project’s
goals and objectives, keeps abreast of major project activities, and is a
decision-maker for the project. The Project Sponsor will participate in and/or
lead project initiation; the development of the Project Charter. He or she will
participate in project planning (high level) and the development of the Project
Initiation Plan. The Project Sponsor provides support for the Project Manager;
assists with major issues, problems, and policy conflicts; removes obstacles;
is active in planning the scope; approves scope changes; signs off on major
deliverables; and signs off on approvals to proceed to each succeeding project
phase. The Project Sponsor generally chairs the steering committee on large
projects. The Project Sponsor may elect to delegate any of the above
responsibilities to other personnel either on or outside the Project Team
The Steering Committee generally
includes management representatives from the key organizations involved in the
project oversight and control, and any other key stakeholder groups that have
special interest in the outcome of the project. The Steering committee acts
individually and collectively as a vocal and visible project champion
throughout their representative organizations; generally they approve project
deliverables, help resolve issues and policy decisions, approve scope changes,
and provide direction and guidance to the project. Depending on how the project
is organized, the steering committee can be involved in providing resources,
assist in securing funding, act as liaisons to executive groups and sponsors,
and fill other roles as defined by the project.
Customers comprise the business
units that identified the need for the product or service the project will
develop. Customers can be at all levels of an organization. Since it is
frequently not feasible for all the Customers to be directly involved in the
project, the following roles are identified:
·
Customer Representatives are members of the
Customer community who are identified and made available to the project for
their subject matter expertise. Their responsibility is to accurately represent
their business units’ needs to the Project Team, and to validate the deliverables
that describe the product or service that the project will produce. Customer
Representatives are also expected to bring information about the project back
to the Customer community. Towards the end of the project, Customer
Representatives will test the product or service the project is developing,
using and evaluating it while providing feedback to the Project Team.
·
Customer Decision-Makers are those members of
the Customer community who have been designated to make project decisions on
behalf of major business units that will use, or will be affected by, the
product or service the project will deliver. Customer Decision-Makers are
responsible for achieving consensus of their business unit on project issues
and outputs, and communicating it to the Project Manager. They attend project
meetings as requested by the Project Manager, review and approve process
deliverables, and provide subject matter expertise to the Project Team. On some
projects they may also serve as Customer Representatives or be part of the
Steering Committee.
Stakeholders are all those
groups, units, individuals, or organizations, internal or external to our
organization, which are impacted by, or can impact, the outcomes of the
project. This includes the Project Team, Sponsors, Steering Committee,
Customers, and Customer co-workers who will be affected by the change in
Customer work practices due to the new product or service; Customer managers
affected by modified workflows or logistics; Customer correspondents affected
by the quantity or quality of newly available information; and other similarly
affected groups.
Key Stakeholders are a subset of Stakeholders
who, if their support were to be withdrawn, would cause the project to fail.
Vendors are contracted to provide additional
products or services the project will require and are another member of the
Project Team.
