Project Roles & Responsibilities
Role/Team
/Individuals
/Responsibilities
/Executive Sponsor
(Optional) / EVP, COO, or SVP (if needed) / 1. Has ultimate authority and responsibility for the project.
2. Provides funding for the project.
3. Approves project charter and subsequent documentation.
4. Supports communication and institutional culture change.
5. Promotes buy-in on the part of the University community.
6. Communicates progress and updates to President and other EVPs.
7. Resolves policy and process issues.
8. Approves any major changes to scope, timeline, or budget.
9. Champions the project with senior leadership. /
Sponsor / Typically a VP or AVP / 1. Has authority and responsibility for the project as appropriate for his/her position.
2. Leads the Advisory or Steering Team meetings.
3. Provides updates to the Executive Sponsor (when named) and/or Senior Leadership.
4. Provides resources, including budget, needed for the project to be successful.
5. Champions the project with the organization.
6. Appoints and/or approves project leadership.
7. Approves project charter and subsequent documentation.
8. Promotes buy-in on the part of the University community and supports communication and institutional culture change.
9. Ensures that the project management team is monitoring project progress, managing project risk, and managing project issues.
10. Resolves policy and process issues, risks, and critical issues escalated from the project management team and/or core team.
11. Communicates project status to executive leadership.
12. Makes decisions regarding issues or changes that impact project scope, project budget, business change, or institutional culture. /
Advisory of Steering Team
(Optional) / Key stakeholders who can provide input and support / 1. Provides insight and input into the work and the subsequent recommendations of the project core team.
2. Provides guidance to the sponsor(s).
3. Supports communication and institutional culture change.
4. Promotes buy-in on the part of the Institution community.
5. Communicates the project status to respective parts of the organization. /
Role/Team
/Individuals
/Responsibilities
/Project Leader
Provides subject matter expertise and functional ownership and accountability for project results. / Represents the sponsor and functional area / 1. Is functionally accountable for the successful implementation of the project.
2. Provides subject matter expertise and functional ownership and accountability for project results.
3. Serves as a member of the project management team and the core team.
4. Participates in the development of the project charter and any other documentation in collaboration with the project manager for approval by the sponsor.
5. Ensures all deliverables and responsibilities of the teams are properly documented and approved on the Roles Matrix.
6. Working with the project manager and sponsor, identifies, requests, and/or removes project team members.
7. Ensures all project team members are aware of their responsibilities.
8. Reviews, gauges impact of, advises on, and provides support for changes to business practice(s).
9. Monitors project status, risks, and issues.
10. Resolves issues related to project execution.
11. Supports effective communication among all levels of the project teams.
12. Manages the balance of project scope, resources, and timelines.
13. Manages budget, if needed.
14. Attends Steering Team meetings and leads Core Team meetings. /
VP of Institutional Effectiveness / Beth Brigdon / 1. Accountable for the effective use of IE resources, processes, and tools.
2. Facilitates issue resolution as needed with sponsors.
3. Supports the communication of project progress to executive leadership. /
Role/Team
/Individuals
/Responsibilities
/Project Manager
Provides project management, process improvement, and change management process expertise, tracking, and reporting. / 1. Provides project management, process improvement, and change management expertise.
2. Working with the Project Leader, develops draft project management documentation - project charter, project roles and responsibilities, roles matrix, kick-off meeting agenda/presentations, risk analysis and plan, project timeline, project schedule, project status reports, decisions/issues/risks log, etc. following the project management checklist.
3. Serves as the leader of the project management team (if such a team is warranted)
4. Ensures that core team meetings are scheduled on a regular basis. Develops agendas in conjuction with Team Leads and Project Leader. Distributes agenda, and facilitates the core team meetings using effective meeting skills and tools so that all members are involved.
a. Follows up on action minutes when developing core team meeting agendas.
5. Assists with the development and execution of a communication plan.
6. Ensures that functional work teams are kicked off and understand their deliverables and responsibilities. Provides team leadership and team membership training as needed.
7. Works with the project teams to develop the Work Breakdown Structure – deliverables, sub-deliverables, and tasks necessary to complete the project.
8. Creates and manages tasks in Microsoft Project (when warranted)
9. Provides copies of updated schedules and produces regular reports about the schedule to the project teams.
10. Maintains official project folder and project documentation.
11. Attends Advisory/Steering Team meetings – works with project leader and sponsor to develop the agenda and meeting materials.
12. Reviews, gauges impact of, advises on, and provides support for change management and changes to business processes.
13. Works collaboratively with all team members to facilitate decision-making and to make sure progress is being made on all tasks.
14. Manages budgets if required.
15. Works with outside vendors as needed.
16. Receives reports of critical issues & risks from team members; updates logs; and escalates to the project leader and/or sponsors that are beyond the ability of the core team to resolve.
17. Provides bi-weekly status reports to key stakeholders.
18. Supervises and manages project issues on a daily basis throughout the project execution phases.
19. Manages project timeline, resources, and scope. Ensures proper change review procedures are followed when changes are made to project timeline, budget, or scope. /
Project Management Team / Project Leader(s), Project Manager, Administrative Support or IE Specialist / 1. Establishes project documentation and work plan.
2. Oversees the work of the team leads.
3. Monitors project status, risks and issues.
4. Resolves issues related to project execution or escalate to the sponsor.
5. Provides project status and reporting as outlined in the Communication Plan. /
Core Team / 1. Holds regular meetings to provide input and direction on the overall strategy and implementation of the project and the completion of the project deliverables.
2. Ensures that the project stays within scope, meets the specific time frames set, and that plans are developed and adhered to during implementation.
3. Provides leadership in making and resolving implementation decisions that impact multiple functional areas.
4. Conducts regular review of project status in terms of the timeline to understand dependencies among functional areas and to make adjustments as needed.
5. Reviews project status in terms of individual functional areas and/or milestones.
6. Reviews the communication plan to assure that project progress is appropriately communicated to the Institution community and to identify any internal communications concerns.
7. Reviews and oversees the tactical decisions necessary for the ongoing management of the project.
8. Receives regular updates and provide input as needed.
9. Identifies and resolves critical issues or escalate to the project sponsor.
10. Ensures the development and implementation of the project communications plan.
11. Serves as management decision-making body for issues that are beyond the individual functional teams’ ability to solve. /
Functional Team Lead / 1. Ensures the team responsibilities and deliverables, as outlined in the project charter and/or team charter, are met.
2. Participates in planning process by providing tasks, durations, and resources for the project plan.
3. Assigns responsibility to functional staff and ensure work is done in a timely manner to preclude slippage in the project schedules.
4. Facilitates effective, regularly scheduled functional team meetings using effective meeting processes. Create agendas and ensure action minutes are documented and distributed for sub-team meetings.
5. Monitors daily the completion of assignments by the sub team.
6. Ensures that sub team documentation is developed and communicated.
7. Provides regular updates to the project manager and core team on work progress, accomplishments, and potential problems with recommended solutions.
8. Serves on the core team.
9. Drafts sub-team status reports and submit to the project manager for inclusion in overall project weekly status reports. /
Functional Team Member / 1. Ensures the team responsibilities and deliverables, as outlined in the project charter and/or team charter, are met.
2. Provides the subject matter expertise and day-to-day planning and implementation for the respective functional area(s).
3. Attends and actively participates in the planning process and in the regularly scheduled functional team meetings.
4. Completes individual tasks as assigned.
5. Serves as communication conduit between the project team, functional management, and the functional area being represented.
6. Resolves issues and escalate when required. /
Project Roles & Responsibilities Table - University v2.0 Page 6 of 7