The successful development, implementation, and operation of systems require close coordination and partnership between all the project team members. Teamwork is essential for delivery of a quality system on time and within budget. While the actual structure of project teams will vary from one project to another (larger projects will necessitate more complex project team structures), all projects require, at a minimum, an Executive Sponsor. The Executive Sponsor identifies the priorities and the business needs that define the project. It is up to the project team members themselves to determine how best to organize the team for any particular project but it is the responsibility of the entire project team to make sure the project is successful. Typical project team roles and responsibilities are described in more detail below.
Note that not every project will require a team with all these positions filled and in some instances, one person may fill more than one role on a project team. In practice, the structure of the project team generally changes over the course of a project as the needs of the project evolve and become more clearly defined.
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| Role | Responsibility |
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| OIT Project Review Team | The OIT Project Review Team is a group of senior IT staff that reviews each project request submitted to OIT. Normally the Project Review Team is made up of members of |
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| but the actual composition of the team may change depending on the number and complexity of incoming projects. The Project Review Team also provides high-level oversight of all OIT projects; determines and regularly reviews the priority of all projects managed by OIT; assigns Project Managers to projects; and prepares regular high-level project summaries for executives and others outside OIT. | | Executive Sponsor | The Executive Sponsor is a senior business manager who is responsible for providing the overall business direction for the project. The Executive Sponsor defines and validates functional requirements, makes resources available to support information technology program initiatives, and reviews the progress of IT projects to assure that the functional requirements are being satisfied in a timely and cost-effective manner. The Executive Sponsor must be someone with budget authority over expenditures related to the project. The Executive Sponsor is typically a high-level manager in the department for which the project is being managed. | | Project Manager | The Project Manager is responsible for project oversight and guidance and ensures that the project is managed in accordance with sound project life cycle management principles and practices, appropriate PM documents are in place, and appropriate resources to support the project have been allocated. The Project Manager ensures that periodic project assessments are performed at major milestones. The Project Manager meets with the other project team members to discuss project status and leads project meetings. The Project Manager is someone who has experience running projects and managing resources and any qualified person may fill the role. | | OIT Sponsor | The OIT Sponsor is the primary contact person within OIT representing the project. The OIT Sponsor is not necessarily the technical adviser on the project, but that is a common role. The OIT Sponsor assists the business unit in preparation of a project proposal and plan, oversees communications within OIT relating to the project, and represents the project team in discussions within OIT relating to the project. The OIT Sponsor is typically someone on the OIT team that has primary responsibility for implementing the project. | | Functional Manager | The Functional Manager is responsible for coordination of activities within the business unit for which the project is being managed. The Functional Manager meets with the business unit project team regularly and ensures that project timelines and assignments are being completed. The Functional Manager also meets frequently with the Project Manager to discuss project status and also participates in project meetings. | | Technical Manager | The Technical Manager is the principal advisor on the effective application of information technology to business needs and will ensure that all information technology projects are developed using adequate staff while applying appropriate methods. It is the Technical Manager’s responsibility to make sure that all technology used in the implementation of the project is approved by OIT and that the resulting systems are secure, sustainable, and maintainable. | | Security Manager | The Security Manager is responsible for reviewing all designs and specifications for a project to ensure that the resulting systems meet OIT, UCI, and UC security guidelines. The Security Manager will also contribute to the development of appropriate test and disposition plans. | | Quality Assurance Manager | The Quality Assurance (QA) Manager oversees the development of a test plan and for the use of that plan to certify that systems produced over the course of the project meet the design criteria. The QA Manager supervises all component, system, and user acceptance testing and makes sure that the finished product conforms to OIT standards for equipment, development methods, and user interface. The QA Manager also reviews any user documentation to ensure that it is appropriate for the audience and matches the finished product. | | Support & Training Manager | The Training Manager is responsible for user guides and other technical and operations documentation developed in support of the project. (The Support & Training Manager is not responsible for documentation relating to the management of the project itself. That is the job of the Project Manager.) The Support & Training Manager develops both a Documentation Plan and a Training Plan and oversees the implementation of those plans. The Support & Training Manager also arranges for any necessary training for users of the systems developed under the project. This can include everything from orientation on new modules for developers to end user training on new features. A final responsibility of the Support & Training Manager is to notify the OIT Help Desk of any changes to documentation, |
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| SOPs, etc. and to make sure Help Desk staff are notified of user training as it is scheduled. | | Production Control Manager | The Production Control Manager makes sure all aspects of the project that impact operations are considered. This may include overseeing changes in SOP’s, user documentation, etc. It also includes reviewing all implementation plans to ensure that disruption of normal production schedules is kept to a minimum. Where the impact of a project spans departments, it is the Production Control Manager’s responsibility to contact his or her counterpart in the impacted departments to make sure the production schedules in those departments are considered as well. | | Business Analyst |
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| The Business Analyst (BA) works closely with the Project Manager and identifies a bridge between the business problems and the technology solutions offered by the project. The BA will analyze an organization or business domain, document its processes and systems, and assess the business model and its integration with technology. The BA also acts as a liaison among stakeholders in order to help everyone understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals. | | Subject Matter Expert | A |
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Subject Matter Expert (SME) is anyone who has specialized knowledge that is specific to the project and critical to the successful completion of the project. (An SME is sometimes referred to as a "domain expert.") Depending on the complexity of a project, several |
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SMEs may be active on, or advising the project team. | | DR Manager | DR Manager is responsible for reviewing technical design and specification resulting in systems meeting OIT, UCI, and UC IT (Disaster) Recovery guidelines. The DR Manager will also contribute to the development and execution of the IT Recovery Plan, Test Plan, and Backup Testing. |
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Category of Responsibilities
Each member of the project team has responsibilities that fall into one of three broad categories:
- Operations Management includes the completion of tasks required to meet the requirements of the project. This includes activities such as software development, hardware acquisition and deployment, testing, document preparation, etc.
- Project Management involves planning, defining the project, preparing work plan, overseeing the execution of the plan, and managing the project to budget.
- Release Management requires an understanding of workforce capacity and capability; production support for new assets and services; tracking of issues on newly deployed projects; promoting, packaging, and releasing new or modified code; and other aspects of project deployment.
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Role | Operations Manager | Project Manager | Release Manager |
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Project Work | - Provide staff for project work
- Ensures application concerns are addressed by project (e.g., upgrades, "sunsetting" of applications)
- Facilitate, coordinate, and resolve IT issues
- No formal role on projects
| Accountable for delivery of the project Creates project work plan Leads, plans, organizes, controls resources assigned to projects Manages vendor and interface relationships Monitors SDLC phase completion dates and deliverables Manages and schedules environments
| | Production Support Work | - Accountable for repairing break-fixes
- Leads, plans, organizes, and controls resources
| - Project-based work (no production role)
| | Budget | Cost center head and above: - Owns and is responsible for staying within cost center budget
- Provides funding for project work
- Determines how budget is spent
| Establishes project budget needs Obtains funding for project from cost centers Responsible for staying within project budget
| | Releases | - Establishes releases based on project and production support needs
| | | Business Facing | - Key business customers are operations managers
- Supports business processes with applications in production
- Directly on point for production support demand
| | Liaison with business during each phase of the release, including project scope definition and prioritization Assists with deployment planning
| Supervisory | - Has direct reports
- Accountable for the skill and career development, annual reviews, "hiring and firing" of direct reports
- Looks for work opportunities, coaches staff
| Most often, no direct reports. Uses matrix with temporary dotted-line reporting Provides performance feedback to supervisors and managers of temporary direct reports
| | Career Path | - IT departmental operations management up to CIO
| | | The “Craft” | - Responsible for applications in production
- Must operate an IT area effectively
- General management
| Must lead distinct (temporary) projects Coordinates, communicates, organizes, gets work done and issues resolved
| Understands how to package releases Manages environments for a smooth migration from development, to test, to production Understands code promotion models
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