01 Jan 2010
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Many projects fail because the project organisation is not effective. Either because the wrong people are in key roles, or they simply do not understand what their role is in contributing effectively. Vicky Billingham, Training Director at Projectivity Ltd looks at how to establish an effective project organisation.
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Introduction
Many projects fail because the people chosen for a role do not understand it or are not really experienced enough to be able to carry it out properly, or because people in the project management team do not really understand the way it is supposed to work, or what other roles are responsible for.
All structured project management methods rely on the organisation structure working seamlessly, where each individual is accountable for his or her own tasks and there are no responsibilities left unassigned. This article outlines these roles and responsibilities so that you can make sure the right people with the right abilities are selected for your project organisation structure.
It is useful to have a model of a project organisation structure that works for the smallest project, the largest project and every size of project in between. So for that reason the ‘roles’ in the project team are described, rather than the ‘people’. Most roles can be populated by more than one person, and a person can take on more than one role.
We will use an example of a small IT project to illustrate the way in which the organisation is put together. Suppose that a company, Wobbly Widgets, which manufactures and sells widgets, has recognised the need to update its website in order to improve sales. The company has an internal IT department which will carry out the development work.
Project Manager
The Project Manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project. The Project Manager’s job is to get the project completed within the constraints of time, cost and quality, according to the ‘contract’ between the Project Manager and the Project Sponsor, ie the Project Management Plan.
There should be only one person in the role of Project Manager. The Project Manager needs to make decisions about the day-to-day management of the project, is the focus for communication around the project and takes responsibility for the planning and other documentation. He writes the Project Management Plan under the supervision of the Project Sponsor, and owns the Project Management Plan throughout the project.
It is usual for the Project Manager to be someone who works for the customer organisation. This is because the Project Manager will be motivated to:
- Complete the project within the constraints of time and cost
- Ensure that the project’s products are thoroughly tested to fulfil the specification
- Ensure that the project’s products are successfully implemented within the customer organisation
- Keep the Business Case, which may be a commercially sensitive product, up to date (checking on cost variations and reviewing pressures for change).
In our example project, the Project Manager will be someone who works for Wobbly Widgets and ideally has good project management experience.
Project Sponsor
The Project Sponsor is the ‘champion’ of the project; responsible for driving the project forward in the customer organisation, providing the funding and ensuring that the business benefits of the project will be realised.
There should be only one person in the role of Project Sponsor. This is because the Project Sponsor is the one role ultimately accountable for the success of the project.
The Project Sponsor takes the ‘business’ view of the project. This means that, in terms of decision-making, the Project Sponsor should always make the decision that is best for the business, which may not necessarily be the best decision for the users or for the suppliers. For example, the Project Sponsor may decide to reject a suggestion for an improvement to a product, on the basis that the benefits the improvement will bring to the users are outweighed by the cost of the improvement. The users may not be happy with this as they are mainly concerned about the products that they will ultimately use, and the suppliers will usually want to carry out the improvement as they would normally receive payment for making it.
As the Project Sponsor is the key decision-maker on the project, he needs to be a senior person, well-respected within the customer organisation with authority, good business skills and an understanding of finance. Usually he will be someone at Director level within the customer organisation.
The Project Sponsor will either write the Business Case or oversee the Project Manager in writing it, and will approve the Project Management Plan.
As the updated website is very important to Wobbly Widgets, the Project Sponsor could be the Managing Director.