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.
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.