PRINCE2 Roles & Responsibilities in Projects

PRINCE2’s requirements for Organisation –

 

To be following PRINCE2, a project must, as a minimum:

·         define its organization structure and roles. This must minimally ensure that all the responsibilities in PRINCE2’s role descriptions are fulfilled.

·         document the rules for delegating change authority responsibilities, if required

·         define its approach to communicating and engaging with stakeholders.

·         PRINCE2 requires that the project board always represents business, user and supplier interests. This is usually done through the executive, senior user and senior supplier,

·         although PRINCE2 does not require three people on every project board. On smaller/simpler projects some of the roles may be combined.

 

PRINCE2 requires that two products are produced and maintained for the organization theme:

 

·         PID In the context of the organization theme, this provides the single source of reference for how the project is to be managed. The PID sets out the project management team structure and roles.

·         Communication management approach -This describes the means and frequency of communication to stakeholders both internal and external to the project.

 

PRINCE2 mandates that certain project roles are fulfilled on every project. The roles may be combined within certain limits. Below figure shows the mandated roles within an illustrative project team structure. Even though the project roles are mandated, the structure is not and is provided only as an example.

Roles and Responsibilities in Projects - According to PRINCE2

Every project needs effective direction, management, control, and communication.

Establishing an effective project management team structure and approach for communication at the beginning of a project, and maintaining these throughout the project’s life, are essential elements of a project’s success.

For this reason, one of PRINCE2’s principles is that projects must have defined and agreed roles and responsibilities within an organization structure that engages the business, user and supplier stakeholder interests.

In order to be flexible and meet the needs of different environments and different project sizes, PRINCE2 defines a set of roles that need to be undertaken, together with the responsibilities of each of those roles.

PRINCE2 identifies three principal categories of project stakeholders.

·         Business,

·         User and

·         Supplier; see below)

 Each of the three principal categories of stakeholders has a specific interest in the project, and each category of stakeholders also has specific roles on the project in order to ensure that their interests are   met.

Business: - The products of the project should meet a business need that justifies the investment in the project. The project should also provide value for money.

The business viewpoint therefore should be represented to ensure that these two prerequisites exist before a project commences and remain in existence throughout the project.

PRINCE2 defines an executive role to represent business interests on the project.

User: - PRINCE2 makes a distinction between the business interests and the requirements of those who will use the project’s outputs.

The user viewpoint represents those individuals or groups for whom following will apply,

·         they will use the outputs of the project to realize the benefits they will operate,

·         support the project’s outputs the outputs of the project will impact them.

·         The user presence is needed to specify the desired outputs and ensure that the project delivers them through the supplier.

PRINCE2 defines a Senior user(s) role to represent user interests on the project.

Supplier: -The creation of the project’s outputs will need resources with certain skills.

The supplier viewpoint should represent those who will provide the necessary skills and produce the project product.

The supplier needs to understand all the relevant standards with which the product needs to comply, and the project may need to use both in-house and external supplier teams to construct the project product.PRINCE2 defines a Senior supplier(s) role to represent supplier interest on the project. 

The Business, User and Supplier interests are brought together on the Project Board, which is accountable for the success of the project.

A successful project management team should have business, user, and supplier stakeholder representation to ensure appropriate governance by defining responsibilities for directing, managing, and delivering the project and clearly defining accountability at each level review the project roles throughout the project to ensure that they continue to be effective have an effective approach to manage communication flows to and from stakeholders.

the Project Management structure has four levels (corporate, directing, managing and delivering) while the Project Management Team has only three levels. The corporate level sits outside of the project and outside the project management team. below Figure. illustrates these four levels of management.

The four levels of management are:

Corporate, Program management or the customer -This level sits above the project management team but will be responsible for commissioning the project, including identifying the executive and defining the project-level tolerances within which the project board will work. This information should, if possible, be recorded in the project mandate.

Directing -The project board is responsible for the overall direction and management of the project within the constraints set out by corporate, program management or the customer.

The project board is accountable for the success of the project.

As part of directing the project, the project board will: 

·         approve all major plans and resources.

·         authorize any deviation that exceeds or is forecast to exceed stage tolerances.

·         approve the completion of each management stage & authorize the start of the next management stage.

·         communicate with other stakeholders.

Managing- The project manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project within the constraints set out by the project board. The project manager’s prime responsibility is to ensure that the project produces the required products in accordance with the time, cost, quality, scope, benefits, and risk performance goals.

Delivering - Although the project manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project, team members are responsible for delivering the project’s products to an appropriate quality within a specified timescale and cost.

Depending on the size and complexity of the project, the authority & responsibility for planning the creation of certain products & managing a team of specialists to produce those products may be delegated to a team manager.

Roles and Responsibilities in Projects  of Project board – All PRINCE2 projects must have a project board.

The project board has authority and responsibility for the project within the instructions (initially contained in the project mandate) set by corporate, programme management or the customer

The project board is accountable to corporate, programme management or the customer for the success of the project and has the authority to direct the project within the remit set by corporate, programme management or the customer as documented in the project mandate.

The project board is also responsible for the communications between the project management team and stakeholders external to that team (e.g. corporate, programme management or the customer).

According to the scale, complexity, importance and risk of the project, project board members may delegate some project assurance tasks to separate individuals.

The project board may also delegate decisions regarding changes to a change authority.

The roles and responsibilities of the project board include:

During start-up and initiation, the project board should:

·         confirm project tolerances with corporate, programme management or the customer.

·         approve the project brief.

·         approve the stage plan for the initiation stage.

·         authorize project initiation.

·         decide whether to use a change authority and, if so, agree the level of authority to be delegated

·         set the scale for severity ratings for issues set the scale for priority ratings for requests for change and off-specifications

·         approve the supplier contract (if the relationship between the customer and supplier is a commercial one) approve the PID, and its components,

·         including any tailoring authorize the start of the project.

During the project, the project board should:

·         set tolerances for each management stage and approve stage plans.

·         authorize each management stage & approve the product descriptions for each management stage

·         approve exception plans when management-stage-level tolerances are forecast to be exceeded.

·         communicate with stakeholders as defined in the communication management approach (including briefing corporate, programme management or the customer about project progress)

·         provide overall guidance and direction to the project, ensuring it remains viable and within any specified constraints

·         respond to requests for advice from the project manager.

·         ensure that risks are being tracked and managed as effectively as possible

·         approve changes (unless delegated to a change authority)

·         make decisions on escalated issues.

·         approve completed products.

 

At the end of the project the project board should:

·         provide assurance that all products have been delivered satisfactorily.

·         provide assurance that all acceptance criteria have been met.

·         confirm acceptance of the project product

·         approve the end project report & ensure that any issues, lessons & risks are documented & passed on to the appropriate body

·         authorize follow-on action recommendations to be distributed to corporate, program management or the customer transfer responsibility for the updated benefits management approach to corporate, program management or the customer.

authorize project closure and send project closure notification to corporate, program management or the customer.

Roles and Responsibilities of Executive in Projects -

The executive is ultimately accountable for the project, supported by the senior user and senior supplier.

The executive’s role is to ensure that the project is focused throughout its life on achieving its objectives and delivering a product that will achieve the forecast benefits.

The executive has to ensure that the project gives value for money, ensuring a cost-conscious approach to the project, balancing the demands of the business, user and supplier.

Throughout the project, the executive is responsible for the business case.

The executive is the ultimate decision maker & is supported in the decision-making by the senior user & senior supplier.

The roles and responsibilities of the Executive include:

In addition to the project board’s collective responsibilities, the executive will:

·         design and appoint the project management team (in particular project manager)

·         oversee the development of the project brief and the outline business case, ensuring that the project is aligned with corporate, programme management or customer strategies (and presenting the outline business case to corporate, programme management or the customer for approval where required)

·         oversee the development of the detailed business case.

·         secure the funding for the project.

·         approve any additional supplier contracts (if the relationship between the user and supplier is a commercial one)

·         hold the senior supplier to account for the quality and integrity of the specialist approach and specialist products created for the project.

·         hold the senior user to account for realizing the benefits defined in the business case, ensuring that benefits reviews take place to monitor the extent to which the business case benefits are achieved

·         transfer responsibility for post-project benefits reviews to corporate, programme management or the customer

·         monitor and control the progress of the project at a strategic level, in particular reviewing the business case regularly.

·         escalate issues and risks to corporate, programme management or the customer if project tolerance is forecast to be exceeded

·         ensure that risks associated with the business case are identified, assessed and controlled.

·         make decisions on escalated issues, with particular focus on continued business justification

·         organize and chair project board reviews.

·         ensure overall business assurance of the project so that it remains on target to deliver products that will achieve the expected business benefits, and so that the project will be completed within its agreed tolerances. Where appropriate, delegate some business project assurance activities.

Roles and Responsibilities of Senior user in Projects -

The senior user is responsible for specifying the needs of those who will use the project’s products, for user liaison with the project management team, and for monitoring that the solution will meet those needs within the constraints of the business case in terms of quality, functionality and ease of use.

The role represents the interests of all those who will use the project’s products (including operations and maintenance), those for whom the products will achieve an objective or those who will use the products to deliver benefits.

The senior user role commits user resources and monitors products against requirements.

This role may require more than one person to cover all the user interests.

For the sake of effectiveness, the role should not be split between too many people.

The senior user specifies the benefits and is held to account by demonstrating to corporate, programme management or the customer that the forecast benefits which were the basis of project approval have in fact been realized. This is likely to involve a commitment beyond the end of the life of the project.

The roles and responsibilities of the Senior User include:

In addition to the project board’s collective responsibilities, the senior user will:

·         assess and confirm the viability of the project approach.

·         ensure that proposals for designing and developing the products are realistic.

·         advise on the selection of design, development and acceptance methods.

·         ensure that the supplier resources required for the project are made available

·         make decisions on escalated issues, with particular focus on safeguarding the integrity of the complete solution.

·         resolve supplier requirements and priority conflicts.

·         brief non-technical management on supplier aspects of the project

·         ensure quality procedures are used correctly, so that products adhere to requirements

·         undertake project assurance from the supplier perspective (supplier assurance) and, where appropriate, delegate supplier project assurance activities

 

The roles and responsibilities of the Senior supplier include:

Senior supplier

The senior supplier represents the interests of those designing, developing, facilitating, procuring, and implementing the project’s products.

This role is accountable for the quality of products delivered by the supplier(s) and is responsible for the technical integrity of the project. If necessary, more than one person may represent the suppliers. Depending on the particular customer/supplier environment, the customer may also wish to appoint an independent person or group to carry out assurance on the supplier’s products (e.g. if the relationship between the customer and supplier is a commercial one)

 

In addition to the project board’s collective responsibilities, the senior supplier will:

·         assess and confirm the viability of the project approach.

·         ensure that proposals for designing and developing the products are realistic.

·         advise on the selection of design, development and acceptance methods.

·         ensure that the supplier resources required for the project are made available

·         make decisions on escalated issues, with particular focus on safeguarding the integrity of the complete solution.

·         resolve supplier requirements and priority conflicts.

·         brief non-technical management on supplier aspects of the project

·         ensure quality procedures are used correctly, so that products adhere to requirements.

·     undertake project assurance from the supplier perspective (supplier assurance) and, where appropriate,         delegate supplier project assurance activities.

Roles and Responsibilities of Project Manager in Projects -

 Project manager

The project manager is accountable to the project board and ultimately the executive and has the authority to run the project on a day-to-day basis, within the constraints laid down by project board.

The project manager’s prime responsibility is to ensure that the project produces the required products within the specified tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, benefits and risk.

The project manager is also responsible for the project producing a result capable of achieving the benefits defined in the business case.

 

The project manager’s responsibilities include the following:

      Prepare the following baseline management products, in conjunction with any project assurance roles and agree them with the project board:

a.       project brief, including the project product description.

b.       benefits management approach

c.       PID, and its components stage/exception plans and their product descriptions

d.       work packages.

Prepare the following reports:

a)       highlight reports.

b)      issue reports

c)       end stage reports

d)      exception reports

e)      end project report

Maintain the following records:

a)       issue register

b)      risk register

c)       daily log

d)      lessons log.

·      Liaise with corporate, program management or the customer to ensure that work is neither   overlooked  nor duplicated by related projects.

·         Liaise with any external suppliers or account managers.

·         Lead and motivate the project management team.

·         Ensure that behavioral expectations of team members are established.

·         Manage the information flows between the directing and delivering levels of the project.

·         Manage the production of the required products, taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective action where necessary.

·         Establish and manage the project’s procedures: - risk management, issue management, change   control and communication.

·         Establish and manage the project controls: - monitoring and reporting.

·         Authorize work packages.

·         Advise the project board of any deviations from the plan.

·         Unless appointed to another person(s), perform the team manager role.

·         Unless appointed to another person (or corporate, program management or customer function),   perform the project support role.

·         Implement the change control approach.

·         Ensure project personnel comply with the change control approach.

Schedule audits to check that the physical products are consistent with the configuration item records and 

initiate any necessary corrective action

Roles and Responsibilities of Team Manager in Projects -

           Team manager -

The team manager’s prime responsibility is to ensure production of those products defined by the project manager to an appropriate quality, in a set timescale and at a cost acceptable to the project board. The team manager is accountable to, and takes direction from, the project manager.

The team manager’s responsibilities include the following:

·      Prepare the team plan and agree it with the project manager.

·      Provide the project manager with recommendations on how PRINCE2 may be tailored to suit the management of the work package.

·      Produce checkpoint reports as agreed with the project manager.

·      Plan, monitor and manage the team’s work. Take responsibility for the progress of the team’s work and use of team resources, and initiate corrective action, where necessary, within the constraints laid down by the project manager.

·       Identify, and advise the project manager of, any issues and risks associated with a work package.

·      Advise the project manager of any deviations from the plan, recommend corrective action and help to prepare any appropriate exception plans.

·      Pass back to the project manager products that have been completed and approved in line with the agreed work package requirements.

·      Liaise with any project assurance and project support roles.

·      Ensure that quality activities relating to the team’s work are planned and performed correctly and are within tolerance.

·      Ensure that the appropriate entries are made in the quality register.

·      Manage specific issues and risks as directed by the project manager.

·      Assist the project manager in examining issues and risks.

·      Ensure that all assigned issues are properly reported to the person maintaining the issue register.

       

      Roles and Responsibilities of Project Assurance in Projects -

Project assurance-

Project assurance covers the primary stakeholder interests (business, user and supplier). The role has to be independent of the project manager; therefore, the project board cannot delegate any of its assurance activities to the project manager.

Business assurance responsibilities include:

·         assisting the project manager to develop the business case and benefits management approach (if it is being prepared by the project manager)

·         advising on the selection of project management team members

·         advising on the risk management approach

·         reviewing the business case for compliance with corporate, program management or customer standards

·         verifying the business case against external events and project progress

·         checking that the business case is being adhered throughout the project.

·         checking that the project remains aligned with the corporate, program management or customer strategy.

·         reviewing project finance on behalf of the customer

·         verifying that the solution continues to provide value for money.

·         periodically checking that the project remains viable.

·         assessing whether the aggregated risk exposure remains within project tolerance.

·         checking that supplier and contractor payments are authorized.

·         reviewing issues and risks by assessing their impact on the business case

·         informing the project management team of any changes caused by a program of which the project is part

·         monitoring management stage and project progress against the agreed tolerances.

User assurance responsibilities include:

·         advising on stakeholder engagement

·         advising on the communication management approach

·         ensuring that the specification of the user’s needs is accurate, complete, and unambiguous.

·         assessing whether the solution will meet the user’s needs and is progressing towards that target.

·         advising on the impact of potential changes from the user’s point of view

·         monitoring risks to the user

·         ensuring that the quality activities relating to products at all management stages have appropriate user representation.

·         ensuring that quality control procedures are used correctly to ensure that products meet user requirements.

·         ensuring that user liaison is functioning effectively.

Supplier assurance responsibilities include:

·         reviewing the product descriptions

·         advising on the quality management approach and change control approach.

·         advising on the selection of the development strategy, design, and methods

·         ensuring that any supplier and operating standards defined for the project are met and used to good effect.

·         advising on potential changes and their impact on the correctness, completeness, and integrity of products against their product description from a supplier perspective

·         monitoring any risks in the production aspects of the project

·     assessing whether quality control procedures are used correctly, so that products adhere to requirements.

Roles and Responsibilities of Change Authority in Projects -

The project board may delegate authority for approving responses to requests for change or off-specifications to a separate individual or group, called a change authority.

The project manager could be assigned as the change authority for some aspects of the project (e.g. changing baselined work packages if this does not affect management stage tolerances)

Responsibilities of the change authority include:

·         Review and approve or reject all requests for change and off-specifications within the delegated limits of authority and change budget set by the project board.

     Refer to the project board if any delegated limits of authority or allocated change budget are forecast to be  

     exceeded.

           Roles and Responsibilities of Project Support in Projects -

The provision of any project support on a formal basis is optional. If it is not delegated to a separate person or function, it will need to be undertaken by the project manager.

One support function that must be considered is that of change control. Depending on the project size and environment, there may be a need to formalize this and it may become a task with which the project manager cannot cope without support.

Project support functions may be provided by a project office or by specific resources for the project.

The following is a suggested list of tasks for project support:

·         Set up and maintain project files.

·         Establish document control procedures.

·         Collect actuals data and forecasts.

·         Update plans.

·         Administer or assist the quality review process.

·         Administer or assist project board meetings.

·         Assist with the compilation of reports.

·         Contribute expertise in specialist tools and techniques (e.g. planning and control tools, risk analysis), including tailoring recommendations suited to the project’s situation

·         Maintain the following records:

·         quality register

·         configuration item records, if used

·         any other registers/logs delegated by the project manager.

·         Administer the change control procedure as follows (these responsibilities may be undertaken by a configuration librarian from corporate, program management or the customer):

·         administer the receipt, identification, versions, storage and issue of all project products.

·         provide information on the status of all products.

·         archive superseded product copies.

·         ensure the security and preservation of the master copies of all project products.

·         maintain a record of all copies issued.

·         notify holders of any changes to their copies

·         number, record, store and distribute issue reports

·      conduct reviews or audits.       

       

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