In today’s world of constant corporate change, team relationships become a vital part of any conversion. Newly formed teams must understand their purpose within a project before throwing themselves into the nitty-gritty work.
When project management teams are focused and understand that their performance affects every step of a project, success is likelier to reach each one of them. In the workplace, staff that was once hierarchical now embraces cross-functional team-based work.
And not even digital advancement, influential as it may be, can replace crucial roles within project management. A Deloitte survey reports that as technology becomes an essential tool for basic tasks, it pushes the need for effective team models in the workforce.
Project Team Roles and Responsibilities
Aside from understanding the primary goals and structures of a project, its completion is not possible without the development of a competent team. According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), four of the most common team members during project management are the following:
Project Manager
These leaders require the skills to identify, build, maintain, motivate, lead and inspire project teams to achieve high team performance. Performance can look different across business sectors. A startup might decide to measure team improvement through the number of monthly creative leads with clients, while a long-standing marketing team analyses the amount of time it takes for a campaign to be completed. Despite this contrast, project managers in both sectors are required to promote high team performance by employing the following behaviors:
- Using open and effective communication
- Creating team-building opportunities
- Developing trust among team members
- Managing conflicts in a constructive way
- Encouraging collaborative problem solving
- Encouraging collaborative decision making
Project Team Member
These members work on various phases of the project. Under the supervision of the project manager, they can either work in-house, remotely, full-time or part-time. The project manager is responsible for considering those factors during the resource phase before starting the project. They can contribute to the overall objectives of the project or be responsible for specific deliverables.
Project Sponsor
A project sponsor works closely with the project manager and is considered the most senior member of an organization. Their responsibility is to legitimize the project’s objectives and participate in the highest level of project planning. This can include meeting with the C-suite of an organization. They’re usually the last ones to sign off approvals needed to advance to the next phases of a project.
Other responsibilities include:
- Solving cross-program and strategic issues with stakeholders
- Approving funding for the program
- Sometimes supervising the work of the senior responsible owner (SRO)
Business Analyst
The business analyst joins a project management team to offer solutions. This individual essentially focuses on the final deliverable and helps the team and organization reach their goals. A business analyst must provide the most detailed project objectives and make sure that the objectives can resolve existing problems and add value to the organization.
Other responsibilities include:
- Documenting technical requirements
- Constantly ensuring the timeliness of project deliverables
- Creating tradeoff, risk, and cost-benefits analysis
Managing the Team
Once each member’s roles and responsibilities are reviewed, it’s up to the project manager to begin managing the team. During this effort, the manager must be aware of the five common phases of team development and how they pave the way to the ultimate realization of the team’s core purpose. During this process of management, the leader should track individual performances, provide feedback, resolve issues and manage changes.
These steps can be useful once a project manager communicates in a way that inspires the team to follow through with their responsibilities.
PMBOK® is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
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