Guide to Project Management: Getting it right and achieving lasting benefit, 2nd Edition

Chapter 3

Project roles and responsibilities

WHEN CONSIDERING THE ORGANISATION of a project it is helpful to look at the structure of the company itself. A project’s organisational structure should contain layers of authority that allow people at different levels to use their particular skills, knowledge and experience to take the right decisions at the right time. In the same way that the organisation’s structure will (or should) have been designed to meet its particular needs, so should the organisational structure of the project be tailored to meet its objective. It must also offer a means by which the expectations of those involved or who have an interest in the project may be met.

Who should be involved in managing a project?

The people brought together to commission, manage, fund, specify, build, test, use and benefit from a project’s outcome must together have the skills, knowledge, experience and personal attributes necessary to carry out the project successfully, no matter how demanding the circumstances become.

There needs to be general agreement on who:

• defines what is required;
• provides the budget;
• directs the people involved in the project;
• authorises changes;
• manages the day-to-day work.

Many people, all with differing expectations of success, will have a stake in a project so it is important to identify and manage their varied expectations. When a project begins, a pool of individuals (or groups) will have an interest in it, either because they will be affected ...