Roles and responsibilities

Abstract

Defining the roles and responsibilities is an important part of a successful collaboration among team members. Roles are the general terms, and responsibilities are the specifics. Project management is responsible for defining the roles and responsibilities within the organisation. There are roles more concentrated on office activities, while others are on technology and development. Project team members may have varied skill sets, may be assigned full or part-time, and may be added or removed from the team as the project progresses. Although specific roles and responsibilities for the project team members are assigned, the involvement of all team members in project planning and decision making is beneficial. The right and most appropriate people for the project can be only hired when the roles are clearly and precisely defined. Planning or control will have no effect if the team consists of wrong people or if the team members are not aware of what is expected of them. Therefore, responsibilities and accountabilities must be determined. It results in higher productivity, better results and better communication with fewer misunderstandings and disruptions. Good match between work and a person decreases the number of errors and mistakes. This article focuses on people perspective as an aspect of project management and provides an overview of roles and their responsibilities within a project team. Team compositions and organisation charts are also mentioned. Members of a project team can use this article to identify the team structure, to understand their role and allocated responsibilities or to deepen their knowledge of the subject. The model can be used in any industry where people are presented to perform work. Effective collaboration is crucial to the success of a project.

Background

Definitions and Importance

These definitions can be found in the PMBOK® Guide:

• Role - The function assumed by or assigned to a person in the project. Examples of project roles are civil engineer, business analyst, and testing coordinator. Role clarity concerning authority, responsibilities, and boundaries should also be documented.

• Responsibility - The assigned duties and work that a project team member is expected to perform in order to complete the project’s activities.

As it can be seen in these definitions, a role is not a responsibility and vice versa. Responsibilities represent values according to which roles are defined. Depending on the needs of the current state of the project, multiple roles can be related to one job. Each role implies a set of matching responsibilities and expectations that can vary during the life cycle of the project, not substantially though.