Roles and Responsibilities

A project manager must clearly show the roles and responsibilities of management, team
members and other stakeholders, and may use a responsibility assignment matrix to do so.
People also have problems differentiating between what the team, project manager and management
should be doing.

The Role of the Project Sponsor / initiator

A basic definition of a sponsor is one who provides the financial resources for the project, but the PMI
will attribute more duties than just providing the financial resources to the sponsor.

• During or prior to project initiating

• Has requirements that must be met
• Is a project stakeholder
• Provide funding
• Provide statement of work
• milestones, key events or project end date (along with customer)
• Issue the project charter
• Give the project manager authority as outlined in the project charter
• Help organize work into appropriate projects
• Set priorities between projects
• Determine the priorities between the "triple constraint" components
• Encourage the finalization of requirements and scope by the stakeholders.
• During project planning
• Provide the project team with time to plan
• May review the WBS
• Supply lists of risks
• Determine the reports needed by management to oversee the project
• Provide expert judgment
• Help evaluate tradeoffs during crashing, fast tracking and re-estimating
• Approve the final project management plan.
• During project executing and project monitoring and controlling
• Approve changes to the project charter
• Protect the project from outside influences and changes
• Enforce quality policies
• Provide expert judgment
• Help evaluate tradeoffs during crashing, fast tracking and re-estimating
• Resolve conflicts that extend beyond the project manager's control
• Approve or reject changes or authorize someone representing them to do so (change control
board)
• May direct that a quality assurance review be performed
• Clarify scope questions
• During project closing
• Provide formal acceptance of the deliverables (if he is the customer)
• Support the collection of historical records from past projects

The Role of the Stakeholders

A stakeholder is anyone who can positively or negatively influence the project.
Stakeholders should be involved in planning the project and managing it more extensively than you
might be doing on your projects. For example, stakeholders:

• May be involved in the creation of the project charter and the preliminary and project scope
statements
• Are involved in:
• Project management plan development
• Approving project changes and being on the change control board
• Scope verification
• Identifying constraints
• Risk management
• Become risk response owners
The Role of the Project Manager
The project manager is responsible for managing the project to meet project objectives.
The project manager's level of authority can vary depending on the form of organization.

• Is assigned to the project no later than project initiating

• Is in charge of the project, but not necessarily the resources
• Does not have to be a technical expert
• Leads and directs the project planning efforts
• Must realize that an unrealistic schedule is his fault and know how to handle those situations
• Understands and enforces professional and social responsibility
• Determines and delivers required levels of quality
• Assists the team and other stakeholders during project executing
• Creates a change control system
• Maintains control over the project by measuring performance, determining if corrective action is
needed, recommending corrective actions, preventive actions and defect repair
• Must have the authority and accountability necessary to accomplish the project management work
• Must say "no" when necessary
• Is the only one who can integrate the project components into a cohesive whole that meets the
customer's needs
• Spends more time being proactive than in dealing with problems (reacting)
• Is accountable for project failure
• Performs or delegates most of the activities outlined in this book

The Role of the Team

The team is a group of people who will complete work on the project. The team members can
change throughout the project as people are added and removed from the project. Team members
may have some project management responsibilities in addition to responsibilities for implementing the
work.
Generally it is the team's role to help plan what needs to be done (WBS) and to create time
estimates for their work packages or activities. During the project executing and monitoring and
controlling process groups, the team members simply complete work packages or activities and help
look for deviations from the project management plan. More specifically, the team may help:

• Identify and involve stakeholders

• Execute the project management plan to accomplish work defined in the project scope statement
• Attend project team meetings
• Process improvement
• Comply with quality and communications plans
• Enforce ground rules
Depending on the size and complexity of the project, the team role might also include helping the
project manager do the following:
• Define the product of the project
• Identify and analyze constraints and assumptions Define
requirements
• Determine the definition of quality on the project and how it will be met Create the
work breakdown structure
• Decompose work packages they are responsible for into schedule activities Identify
dependencies and create the network diagram
• Provide time and cost estimates
• Identify risks
• Perform qualitative and quantitative risk analysis and risk response planning Determine
time and cost reserves for the project
• Produce project performance reports
• Measure project performance
• Determine the need for corrective action
• Close out phases of the project
• Select appropriate processes
The Role of the Functional Manager
The individual who manages and "owns" the resources in a specific department such as IT,
engineering, public relations, or marketing and generally directs the technical work of individuals from
the functional area working on the project.

The amount of involvement of the functional manager depends on the form of organizational structure.
In a matrix organization, the responsibility to direct the work of individuals is shared with the project
manager. In a projectized organization, the project manager does all of the directing. The project
manager does little directing in a functional organization. To avoid conflict, the project manager and
functional manager must coordinate their respective needs regarding the use of resources to complete
project work. It is generally the responsibility of the project manager to manage this relationship.

The specific activities performed by the functional manager vary greatly based on the type of
organizational structure as well as the type of project. They MAY include:
• Assign specific individuals to the team and negotiate with the project manager regarding resources
• Let the project manager know of other projects that may impact the project
• Participate in the initial planning until work packages or activities are assigned
• Approve the final project management plan during project management plan development
• Approve the final schedule during schedule development
• Recommend corrective actions
• Assist with problems related to team member performance
• Improve staff utilization