“Highly effective teams have clearly articulated roles and responsibilities.” – Author unknown
The Abbott and Costello comedy routine “Who’s on first?” entertained us with a great example of confusion and lack of communication! Unfortunately, that type of confusion often occurs when Organizations are working to implement a desired task.
As we continue our discussions on hints for effective execution for an Organization’s project/initiative, this month we will be focusing on the importance of clearly-defined roles and responsibilities with the Project Team.
When a Project Team’s roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined, a project can stall, impact the project’s direction, create confusion and disconnects. To mitigate this, establishing clearly defined roles and responsibilities reap numerous benefits including but not limited to:
- The Project Team works more effectively together
- Communication is improved
- Tasks are less prone to be missed and are completed by the person assigned to perform each task
- It reduces confusion and finger pointing
- Here are some hints when defining the Project Team’s roles and responsibilities:
- Identify those who will be participating in the project
- Review the tasks identified within the project plan
- Align those tasks with the roles of each Participant based on expertise (skills and capabilities), experience, and availability
- Identify additional Resources needed so that all tasks have the necessary expertise applied
- Assign the tasks each Participant will perform (i.e., project lead/manager, communication coordinator, experts based on the project’s tasks) within the project plan
- Create a job summary of the specific role each Project Team Participant will perform that aligns with the tasks and timeline of the project plan
- Establish performance reporting and milestone indicators to assess the progress of the project to ensure its successful completion based on the project plan, including defining how to escalate and address issues and delays
Clearly-defined roles and responsibilities support a project’s defined objectives and focus on what is most important as we discussed in previous insights. Collectively, these encourage a successful execution of any project or initiative within an Organization. Do you need help executing a project/initiative? Aldridge Kerr are experienced Project Managers and can provide the project management framework to successfully execute your project. Contact us today.