Top 5 Project Roles | A Quick Overview

Defining the Project Roles

When beginning a project, there are established objectives and goals and should achieve them at the right time effectively and efficiently. As such, you should select the right team around the project life cycle. That means you should have confidence and trust in their skills and knowledge. As well as you should have the motivation, they will work well. If you feel confident and trust your team, you should know each person’s role and responsibilities before the start.

Before beginning the project, you should distinctly lay out the responsibilities for each role. That will help everyone to know who is accountable or responsible for project tasks. So, we always need these project roles such as project manager, project sponsor, project team members, stakeholders, and customers or users.

The Project Manager

Usually, all project members should be responsible for their duties. So among them, the project manager plays a fantastic key role throughout the project life cycle. As such, it is a challenging position. Also, the project manager should have confidence in adapting to the changing environment. Therefore, he has the responsibility for the overall success of the team.

Every project manager must understand that you should pay close attention to your team members. Because of that, it is one of the most crucial things to deliver the project’s output successfully. If you need to do that, you should use the following to keep your team strong.

Team building techniques
Influencing
Motivation
Decision-making skills
Coaching skills

The project manager should be responsible for balancing the project management triple constraint. According to that triple constraint, he must deliver the project on time, within budget, and meet the customer’s expectations.

As a project manager, if you want to rely on the project management field for a long time, pursue as follows,

Build project management skills
Political and cultural awareness
Build interpersonal skills

Project Team Members

Behind every successful project team, there is strong leadership. Project team members are also considered primary stakeholders. They play a crucial role throughout the project life cycle.

“Behind every successful project manager, there are strong project team members“

They will vary depending on the size, complexity, and type of the project. Both the project manager and project team members should have a strong relationship. Through that, the project manager can achieve the expected project goals and objectives successfully.

When you are selecting the project team members, you should consider these variables,

Choosing teammates with the right technical skills
Interpersonal skills

These variables will help you to meet your project goals. If you select the wrong person as a team member, that could be a cause to waste time and money in your organization. On the other hand, the entire project can fail.

As a project manager, when you select the project team members for completing the project task or milestones, you must have the sense to identify the right person for your project. Also, you should have a strong relationship with your team members. Then you can understand their strengths and weaknesses.

A project sponsor is a person who is accountable for the project. He plays a fantastic role throughout the project life cycle. As well as he initiates the project and should be responsible for presenting the business case for its existence, signing the project charter, and releasing resources to the project manager.

The project sponsor is another prime stakeholder who plays a vital role in the project’s success. And he can be directly involved in the project. Sometimes he funds the project. As well as in every crucial situation, he should communicate with the project team throughout all project life cycle phases.

The sponsor will sometimes communicate directly with managers or key stakeholders because they are the heart of the operation throughout the project life cycle. The sponsor also could be the CEO of the project.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are a vital part of a project or business. Business means an unexpected risk, defect, or something that goes wrong, in such a case to hold as a stakeholder in the business. Project means stakeholders can hold for the investment to the project’s success or get the outcome.

Stakeholders can divide into two groups.

Primary stakeholders
Secondary stakeholders

Primary stakeholders are directly affected by the outcome of the project’s success. such as senior leaders, team members, customers, CEO (sponsor),

secondary stakeholders are indirectly affected by the project‘s success. Such as business partners, consumers, environmental groups, government, and contractors. As well as the project outcome might not affect them directly. However, the project manager should know followers,

who are they
what they need
how to communicate with them

Both primary and secondary stakeholders help project managers to define project objectives, goals, and outcomes. However, they won’t play an active role throughout the project life cycle.

What is Stakeholder?

Read More: Stakeholder management in project management

Customers or Users

Customers mean project buyers. It may be a product or service, Such as office managers or procurement officers. Users mean employees who work at the office because they are the people who enjoy after buying a product or service.

According to that, customers will get some value from a successfully landed project. As well as the project aims to deliver something beneficial to the customers. Therefore the customer’s needs are often defined as the project’s requirements. Both customers and users will help in the successful completion of the project.

Conclusions

Every project has several essential project roles. It involves the project manager, team members, project sponsor, stakeholders, customers, and users. As a project team, they play a crucial role throughout the project life cycle, including initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Therefore, project team members are essential when achieving acceptable project outcomes. However, the project manager should select the right project team members for the project’s success.