Project Management Leadership: Building Creative Teams, 2nd Edition

Chapter 20

Delegation

Learning Outcomes

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Identify what delegation is and how to delegate.
• Know what kinds of tasks can be delegated.
• Identify some problems arising from poor delegation.

The APM BoK 6ed (2012) defines Delegation as: The practice of giving a person or group the authority to perform the responsibilities of, or act on behalf of, another.

For our purposes, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines Delegation as: Verb /delligayt/ entrust (a task or responsibility) to another person.

The objective of delegation is to get work done by someone else (e.g. a team member). In the project context, work should be assigned as a complete package, including the authority associated with decision making and incorporation of any modifications that come from new information, without having to refer back to the person who has delegated the task.

1. Reasons for Delegating

During a project, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) provides a list of all the work needed to complete the project. This provides a list of activities that can be delegated to, for example, the project team. Selection of the people to complete each activity will depend upon whether they have the appropriate skills and experience, if they are available, or if you want them to develop skills in some aspects of the work.

There are two main reasons for delegating work:

Delegate to Take Control of Your Time: Some project work might not really need to be ...