Who's Involved?

A project has a team of people involved in its delivery, obviously different size projects have different numbers of people involved, but every project should have people fulfilling the following roles:

 

 

The sponsor is the major driving force behind the project. They are the source of the project and should be consulted to ensure that the project stays on track with their goals. In many cases a group of people may be agreeing on any decisions (e.g. a programme board), but there should always be a named individual who will take responsibility for the decisions. It is important that the Project Sponsor makes sure that the Project Manager is involved as early as possible and fully understands the project.

 

The Project Board is responsible for the project’s success so it is responsible for all decisions and decides the overall direction of the project. It agrees all the major plans and authorises any significant deviations from plans. It makes sure that the project gets the resources it need and decides on any conflicts in the project.

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The Project Manager is responsible for making the project happen on behalf of the Project Sponsor/Board. They lead and manage the project team and run the project on a day-to-day basis. The Project Manager must have the necessary skills and experience and except for very small projects it is a full time job.

 

The Project Team is simply the people required by the Project Manager to assist in the delivery of the project. The composition of the Project Team is dependent on the nature of the project. Obviously the people on the team should have the necessary skills and expertise to carry out their roles. It is the Project Manager's responsibility to identify who is needed, but the Project Sponsor's responsibility to make sure they are made available. A project team may be made up of people working full time on the project or others, from different areas, who provide occasional support.

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The role of project assurance exists to ensure that a project still has a valid business case, is meeting its targets and scope creep is not setting in. In many cases the project assurance function can be fulfilled by regular communication between the project manager and the project board. However, on larger projects this role can be fulfilled by an external party to give a truly objective view of the project status.

 

A stakeholder is a person, group or institution that has an interest in a project and/or the potential to influence its success. It is important that you identify who the key stakeholders are, what their interest in the project is and what steps you can take to ensure that they are consulted or kept informed of developments so that any potential conflict is avoided.

 

 

The next section, Project Management Process, gives an overview of the process.