Project Roles & Responsibilities

The Project Sponsor is ultimately accountable for the success or failure of the project and has to ensure that the project is focused on achieving its business objectives and delivering the forecast benefits. The Project Sponsor has to ensure that the project gives value for money and adopts a cost effective approach which balances the demands of the business, users and suppliers. Throughout the project the Project Sponsor is responsible for the business case and needs to be able to take a balanced view of the project on behalf of the wider organisation.

This role will normally be undertaken by someone operating at a senior level within the business organisation with significant executive and natural authority. The responsibilities of the Project Sponsor include:

• Provide direction and guidance for strategies and initiatives to the Project Manager as directed by the Board
• Works with the Project Manager to develop the Project Brief
• Checks that business benefits are identified and being achieved
• Makes go/no-go decisions
• Evaluates the project's success upon completion
• Negotiates funding for the project
• Ensures effective project plans are produced
• Reviews and approves changes to plans, priorities, deliverables, schedule and more
• Identifies, appoints project board members (when required) and ensures they are trained to carry out their role effectively
• Gains agreement among stakeholders when differences of opinion occur
• Assists the project when required (especially in an out-of-control situation) by exerting organisational authority and the ability to influence
• Helps resolve inter-project boundary issues
• Helps the Project Manager in conflict resolution
• Advises the Project Manager of protocols, political issues, and potential sensitivities
• Makes the project visible within the organisation
• Encourages stakeholder involvement and builds and maintains their ongoing commitment through effective communication strategies
• Chief risk taker

The Project Manager runs the project from day to day on behalf of the Project Sponsor. The Project Manager ensures that the project deliverables are of the required quality, i.e. are capable of delivering the benefits defined in the business case, and produced within the agreed time and cost.

The responsibilities of the Project Manager include:

• Directing the project team
• Managing the project plan
• Maintaining the risk register, issue and change control logs
• Reporting on progress to the Project Sponsor and other stakeholders

The Senior User represents those groups who will use or gain benefit from the project and must be empowered to make decisions on their behalf. In practice the Senior User is likely to be responsible for realising the business benefits and may have "business as usual" service commitments after the project is completed.

This role will normally be undertaken by someone operating at a senior level within the user organisation with significant executive and natural authority. The responsibilities of the Senior User include:

• Ensuring user needs are understood and accurately specified
• Commiting user resources
• Communicating between the user community and the project team
• Ensuring that the solution meets user expectations, satisfies user needs and contributes towards realising the business benefits

In larger or more complex projects a User Advisory Board can be set up to represent wider user interests. In such cases the Senior User will chair this group.

The Senior Supplier represents those groups who will design, develop, facilitate, procure and implement the project and must be empowered to make decisions on their behalf.

This role will normally be undertaken by someone operating at a senior level within the supplier organisation with significant executive and natural authority. The responsibilities of the Senior Supplier include:

• Ensuring project plans, proposals and specifications are feasible and realistic
• Committing supplier resources and ensuring any divergence from budgeted supplier costs is appropriately managed
• Ensuring the quality of the project deliverables and the overall technical integrity of the project
• Ensuring that the project deliverables are reliable, appropriately integrated and can be maintained efficiently

In larger or more complex projects a Supplier Advisory Board can be set up to represent wider supplier interests. In such cases the Senior Supplier will chair this group.

The Procurement Adviser provides professional advice and guidance for the procurement elements of the project. This role is mandatory on projects with total external spend (across 4 years) over the OJEU threshold.

The Programme Manager is responsible for the overall integrity and coherence of the programme, and develops and maintains the programme environment to support each individual project within it.

The Programme Manager is responsible for successful delivery of the programme of which the project is part. The role requires effective coordination of the projects and their inter-dependencies, including IS and other resources, and any risks and other issues that may arise. For projects with no Senior Supplier the Programme Manager will take on the responsibilities of the Senior Supplier role.

The Project Board provides direction and management for the project. The Project Board is the overall authority for the project and is accountable for its success or failure. Members must have sufficient authority to carry out their responsibilities effectively.

The collective responsibilities of the Project Board members include:

• Accepting and demonstrating ownership for the project
• Working as a team to provide collective and unified direction
• Effective delegation with appropriate project tolerances and exception management processes
• Facilitating cross functional working ensuring that the project structure is recognised and respected by line management
• Commiting all of the resources required to successfully complete the project
• Effective decision making including risk, issue and change management
• Project assurance and quality control
• Ensuring timely and effective communication within the project and with external stakeholders
• Ensuring that the project deliverables are reliable, sustainable and can be maintained efficiently

All projects require an effective governance structure. As a minimum the Project Board should include the Project Sponsor, Senior User(s), Senior Supplier(s) and Project Manager. Other staff such as the Programme Manager can provide support to the Project Manager as required.