Executive's Guide to Project Management: Organizational Processes and Practices for Supporting Complex Projects

Putting It All Together

You should now appreciate the complexity of the CPM, BA, BPP, and ITP interactions and the options for their assignments. A one-size-fits-all division of roles and responsibilities will not work. Every question regarding their being assigned specific roles in a project is answered the same way: “It all depends.” Even that answer can change as the dynamics of the project play themselves out. The world does not stand still because you made a staffing decision and are now managing your project. Change is constant and don't think otherwise as you make staffing decisions. You don't know what changes will arise or when, and when they do occur you don't know what impact, if any, they will have on the team structure and the future of the project.

The major opportunity that this integration presents is to favorably impact project success. We know that the top reason for project failure is lack of client involvement. Permit me to change that reason to lack of meaningful client involvement. We've had client involvement for years but it was never meaningful involvement. It was more like token involvement. The relationship between the client, the project, and the project management team is critical to supporting or not supporting that involvement. That means that the management staffing decisions must be decisions that are most supportive of engendering that meaningful involvement.

So my final advice to every CPM, BA, BPP, and ITP is to always pay attention to the management ...