PMLC - Project Roles and Responsibilities

Project Name:
Date:

The purpose of this document is to clearly articulate the different roles within a project team and the duties
each role/person is responsible for. Not every role or responsibility within, is needed for each project,
therefore trim this document to what is needed for the project (Executive Sponsor should sign off).

Title Role Name

Executive The executive leader who has sanctioned the project (Name of
Sponsor Individual)

Responsibilities
 Monitors the overall progress of the project at a high level
 Assists the Project Champion when escalations are necessary
 Gainers support for the project at the executive level
 Authorizes and approves/rejects “Project Change Requests” issues that affect Scope, Cost, Time or
Quality which are outside of tolerance levels.

Title Role Name

Project The individual who commissions the team to deliver the project and (Name of
Champion champions the cause throughout the project. Typically a senior member Individual)
of staff with a relevant area of responsibility that will be affected by the
outcome of the project. This may be a senior executive, director, or
program manager. The champion is continually involved, including
assisting with defining the project and actively reviewing the progress.
Responsibilities
 Ultimate responsibility for the success of the project.
 Leads general campus communications on behalf of the project or defers to Project Manager.
 Garners commitment from other key stakeholders.
 Assures availability of essential project resources.
 Presides over the project steering committee (unless its decided that the Executive Sponsor has this
responsibility)
 Facilitates organizational level problem solving and ensures escalated risks/issues are resolved.
 Makes key decisions on changes, risks, conflicting objectives and any other issue that is outside of the
project manager's designated authority.
 Negotiates a path through complex diplomatic areas of the project.
 Supports the Project Manager, provides and approves discretionary budget, and offers mentoring,
coaching and leadership when dealing with business and operational matters.
 With the project manager, escalates critical risks/issues to and/or notifies the Executive Sponsor in a
timely manner

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PMLC - Project Roles and Responsibilities

Title Role Name

Project Responsible for leading a project from concept to close out. This (Name of
Manager includes conceptualization, initiation, planning, executing-controlling- Individual)
monitoring and closing out the project, while managing risks, timelines,
resources and the scope of the project. Works with the Project Champion
to define the project scope & team members and reports on risks, issues
and progress on a regular basis. The project manager’s goals are
focused on delivering the project on time, on scope, within budget and to
the required quality standard.
Responsibilities
 Actively manages, communicates and mitigates project risks and issues and escalates when necessary.
 Manages the expectations of project leadership and stakeholders throughout the project (see “project
expectations” document).
 Provides detailed project planning documentation (Charter, Risk Mgmt Log, Status Reports, Schedule,
Budget, etc)
 Develops and maintains a comprehensive project plan, in keeping with the size and complexity as
mutually agreed upon by the PMO organization and the Project Champion.
 Responsible for managing the execution of all project milestones/deliverables/releases.
 Provides leadership and actively manages the project team resources within the confines of the project.
 Organizes Inter-Departmental work groups and team meetings, when necessary.
 Monitors project progress; individual and team performance against work estimates and assists when
necessary to ensure that the project stays on schedule, cost, scope and quality.
 Manages project scope and change control and escalates issues where necessary
 Provides status reports to the project leadership.
As a liaison to the project leadership.
 When requested, provides a performance feedback loop to “Resource Managers” for all project Team
members, which can be helpful for the employee performance and personal development review
process.
 *Resolves cross-functional issues at project level, escalates where necessary
 *Manages project training within the defined budget.
 *Provides Team Building exercises, cross training and skills building opportunities that develops a
highly productive, adaptive, motivated and creative team which builds cooperation, respect, Team and
Self focus, openness, respect and commitment
 Works closely with users to ensure the project meets business needs.
*=If the Project Management Lite methodology is employed, these tasks may not apply.

Title Role Name

Project Often included on the project steering committee, these (Name of Individuals)
Stakeholders individuals represent areas of the university that may be
affected positively or negatively by the outcome of the
project.
Responsibilities
 Provides advice, risk related communication or feedback for the project including, functional

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PMLC - Project Roles and Responsibilities

requirements, deliverables or other issues.

 May serve on the steering committee or work group to guide the work of the project.
 Provides access to segments of the community, while requiring limited commitment.
 May provide advisory or Subject Matter Expertise (SME) resources to assist the project team

Title Role Names

Steering or This group includes management and other project (Names of Individuals)
Oversight stakeholders and is responsible for overseeing the progress
Committee of the project and reacting to any strategic problems. The
group is usually required in large projects, which cross
functional boundaries and may be optional for PM
Lite/Coordination projects.
Responsibilities
 Advocates for the project and raises awareness at the senior management level.
 Approves the budget and decides tolerance levels.
 Approves strategies, implementation plan, project scope and milestones.
 Resolves strategic and policy issues.
 Drives and manages change through the organization.
 Prioritizes project goals with other ongoing projects.
 Communicates with other key organizational representatives.

Title Role
Project Team Team member roles will vary depending on the type of project. Team members may be
Members functional experts, technical architects, system developers, system administrators, database
administrators, quality assurance analysts, trainers, and help desk staff.
Responsibilities Name
  Business Analysts: (Name of Individual)
o Identifies business problem and documents functional
requirements.
o Facilitates brainstorming sessions and discussions on
gathering user requirements.
o Creates Storyboards, prototypes, context diagrams and define
User Stories.
o Reports on progress/issues to project manager, product
owners and users. (Name of Individual)
 Communicator
o Prepares the project’s communication plan.
o Prepares draft communications needed to keep designated
populations abreast of the progress of the project. (Name of Individual)
 Functional experts:
o Provides functional expertise in an administrative process.
o Works with users to ensure the project meets business needs.
o Documents and analyses current and future
processes/systems.

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PMLC - Project Roles and Responsibilities
o Defines requirements for reporting and interfacing.
o Identifies and maps information needs. (Name of Individual)
 Trainer
o Prepares training documentation for users
o Trains users and support staff.

(The following may only pertain to an IT project)

(Name of Individual)
 Technical expert:
o Designs the technical architecture (software, hardware and
interfaces) for the system.
o Specifies hardware requirements.
o Advises on technical strategy, policy and procedure.
o Provides technical leadership for the programming team. (Name of Individual)
 System developer
o Provides technical requirements and estimates based on
functional requirements.
o Develops the application including, interfaces, data migration,
or integration with other systems.
o Manages application configuration and deployment.
o Sets up security rights and access permissions.
o Migrates code between development, test, and production.
o Advises on technical strategy, policy and procedures.
o Creates technical documentation to agreed standards. (Name of Individual)
o Reports on progress/issues to project manager and users.
 System administrator
o Manages and supports all system environments (development,
test, and production)
o Provides operating system management and support.
o Provides back-up and disaster recovery measures. (Name of Individual)
o Advises on technical strategy, policy and procedure.
o Creates technical documentation to agreed standards.
 Database administrator
o Provides database management and support.
o Advises on technical strategy, policy and procedure. (Name of Individual)
o Creates technical documentation to agreed standards.
 Quality assurance analyst
o Creates test plans per the requirements and specifications for (Name of Individual)
the application.
o Tests and reports on software defects.
o Reports on progress/issues to the project manager and users.
 Help Desk
o Participates in project meetings and training to anticipate
customer support issues.
o Tracks help desk reports and resolutions in a help desk
tracking system.

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PMLC - Project Roles and Responsibilities

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