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408.0 Project Roles and Responsibilities

Projects of different sizes have different needs for how the people are organized. In a small project, little organization structure is needed. There might be a primary sponsor, project manager and a project team. However, for large projects, there are more and more people involved, and it is important that people understand what they are expected to do, and what role people are expected to fill. This section identifies some of the common (and not so common) project roles that may be required for your project.

Analyst

The Analyst is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of the business clients are captured and documented correctly before a solution is developed and implemented.  In some companies, this person might be called a Business Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, Systems Analyst or Requirements Analyst. For more information on this role see 408.2 The Role of an Analyst. 

Change Control Board

The Change Control Board is usually made up of a group of decision makers authorized to accept changes to the projects requirements, budget, and timelines. This organization would be helpful if the project directly impacted a number of functional areas and the sponsor wanted to share the scope change authority with this broader group. The details of the Change Control Board and the processes they follow are defined in the project management processes.

Client

This is the people (or groups) that are the direct beneficiaries of a project or service. They are the people for whom the project is being undertaken. (Indirect beneficiaries are probably stakeholders.) These might also be called "customers", but if they are internal to the company, LifecycleStep refers to them generically as clients. If they are outside your company, they would be referred to as "customers".

Client Project Manager

If the project is large enough, the business client may have a primary contact that is designated as a comparable project manager for work on the client side. The IT project manager would have overall responsibility for the IT solution. However, there may be projects on the client side that are also needed to support the initiative, and the client project manager would be responsible for those. The IT project manager and the client project manager would be peers who work together to build and implement the complete solution.

Database Administrator

A Database Administrator is a specialist that models, designs and creates the databases and tables used by a software solution. This role combines Data Administrator (logical) and DBA (physical). For more information on this role, see 408.8 The Role of the Database Administrator.

Designer

The designer is responsible for understanding the business requirements and designing a solution that will meet the business needs. There are many potential solutions that will meet the client's needs. The designer determines the best approach. A designer typically needs to understand how technology can be used to create this optimum solution for the client. The designer determines the overall model and framework for the solution, down to the level of designing screens, reports, programs and other components. They also determine the data needs. The work of the designer is then handed off to the programmers and other people who will construct the solution based on the design specifications. For more information on this role, see 408.5 The Role of a Designer.

Developer

The Developer is responsible for the actual building of the solution. For more information on this role, see 408.6 The Role of the Developer.

Project Manager

This is the person with authority to manage a project. This includes leading the planning and the development of all project deliverables. The project manager is responsible for managing the budget and schedule and all project management procedures (scope management, issues management, risk management, etc.). For more information on this role see 408.1 The Role of a Project Manager.

Project Team

The project team consists of the full-time and part-time resources assigned to work on the deliverables of the project. This includes the analysts, designers, programmers, etc. They are responsible for:

• Understanding the work to be completed

• Planning the assigned activities in more detail if needed

• Completing assigned work within the budget, timeline and quality expectations

• Informing the project manager of issues, scope changes, risk and quality concerns

• Proactively communicating status and managing expectations

The project team can consist of staff within one functional organization, or it can consist of members from many different functional organizations. A cross-functional team has members from multiple organizations. Having a cross-functional team is usually a sign that your organization is utilizing matrix management.

Quality Manager

On a large project, quality management could take up a large amount of project management time. In this case, it could be worthwhile to appoint someone as quality manager. For more information on this role, see 408.9 The Role of a Quality Manager.

Sponsor (Executive Sponsor and Project Sponsor)

This is the person who has ultimate authority over the project. The Executive Sponsor provides project funding, resolves issues and scope changes, approves major deliverables and provides high-level direction. They also champion the project within their organization. Depending on the project and the organizational level of the Executive Sponsor, they may delegate day-to-day tactical management to a Project Sponsor. If assigned, the Project Sponsor represents the Executive Sponsor on a day-to-day basis and makes most of the decisions requiring sponsor approval. If the decision is large enough, the Project Sponsor will take it to the Executive Sponsor for resolution. For more information on this role, see 408.3 The Role of the Project Sponsor.

Stakeholder

These are the specific people or groups who have a stake, or an interest, in the outcome of the project. Normally stakeholders are from within the company, and could include internal clients, management, employees, administrators, etc. A project may also have external stakeholders, including suppliers, investors, community groups and government organizations.

Steering Committee

A Steering Committee is a group of high-level stakeholders who are responsible for providing guidance on overall strategic direction. They do not take the place of a Sponsor, but help to spread the strategic input and buy-in to a larger portion of the organization. The Steering Committee is usually made up of organizational peers and is a combination of direct clients and indirect stakeholders. Some members on the Steering Committee may also sit on the Change Control Board.                                                                       

Subject Matter Expert

A Subject Matter Expert (SME) has superior (expert) knowledge of a discipline, technology, product, business process or entire business area. For more information on this role, see 408.4 The Role of the SME.

Suppliers / Vendors

Suppliers and vendors are third party companies or specific people that work for third parties. They may be subcontractors who are working under your direction, or they may be supplying material, equipment, hardware, software or supplies to your project. Depending on their role, they may need to be identified on your organization chart. For instance, if you are partnering with a supplier to develop your requirements, you probably want them on your organization chart. On the other hand, if the vendor is supplying a common piece of hardware, you probably would not consider them a part of the team.

Tester

The Tester ensures that the solution meets the business requirements and that it is free of errors and defects. For more information on this role, see 408.7 The Role of the Tester.

Users

These are the people who will actually use the deliverables of the project.  These people may also be involved heavily in the project in activities such as defining business requirements. In other cases, they may not get involved until the testing process. Sometimes you want to specifically identify the user organization or the specific users of the solution and assign a formal set of responsibilities to them, like developing use cases or user scenarios based on the needs of the business requirements.

Responsibility Matrix

In a large project, there may be many people who have some role in the creation and approval of project deliverables. Sometimes this is pretty straightforward, such as one person writing a document and one person approving it. In other cases, there may be many people who have a hand in the creation, and others that need to have varying levels of approval. The Responsibility Matrix is a tool used to define the general responsibilities for each role on a project. The matrix can then be used to communicate the roles and responsibilities to the appropriate people associated with the team. This helps set expectations and ensures people know what is expected from them. 

On the matrix, the different people, or roles, appear as columns, with the specific deliverables in question listed as rows. Then, use the intersecting points to describe each person's responsibility for each deliverable. A simple example matrix follows:

	Project Sponsor	Project Manager	Project Team	Client Managers	Analysts
Requirements Management Plan	A	C	R	A	R
Requirements Report	I, A	R	R	I, A	C
Process Model	R	R	R	I, A	C
Data Model	R	R	R	I, A	C
Requirements Traceability Matrix	R	R	R	R	C

Examples of responsibility codes are as follows. Your project may define different codes, as long as you explain what they mean so that people know the expectations for them.

• A - Approves the deliverable

• R - Reviews the deliverable (and provides feedback).

• C - Creates the deliverable (could be C (1) for primary, C (2) for backup). Usually there is only one person who is responsible for creating a deliverable, although many people may provide input.

• I - Provides input

• N – Is notified when a deliverable is complete

• M - Manages the deliverables (such as a librarian, or person responsible for the document repository)

In the table above, the Requirements Management Plan is created by the project manager, approved by the sponsor and client managers, and reviewed by the project team and analysts.

The purpose of the matrix is to gain clarity and agreement on who does what, so you can define the columns with as much detail as makes sense. For instance, in the above example, the 'Project Team' could have been broken into specific people, or the person responsible for creating the Data Model could have been broken out into a separate column. After the matrix is completed, it should be circulated for approval. It can be created as a part of the Project Charter or it should be circulated as a separate document during the Analysis Phase.

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