Did you know for a project to be successful, not only does it need strategic planning, but a
talented team? And in this video, I'm going to share with you what exactly are those project team
roles and responsibilities, so that you can be successful.
While we're going to talk about project teams, I want you to stick around because at the end
of this video, I'm going to share with you how you can get your hands on 10 most common project
mistakes so you don't have to go through them. Hi, if you're new here, welcome. My name is
Adriana Girdler and you've landed on the best practical project management channel ever. Now,
wait a minute. Am I bragging too much? Okay. I really think it's good, but that being said,
I want you to stick around because not only are we going to talk about project teams today,
I'm going to give you what you need, so you can be successful in your projects,
and generally speaking what you do professionally. So if you're ready to learn about those project
team rules, let's get to it. Oh, but wait, I just want to give you a little bit of a
disclaimer here. All these rules I'm talking to you about exist, but just take notes. Some of
them may be combined or slightly different from a naming convention, depending on the project.
Project sponsor. I'm kicking off with this role because it's really important. Projects
just don't come out of thin air. They're usually linked to some strategic initiative and where do
strategic initiatives come from? They usually come from senior executives. So as a result,
your project sponsor is usually a senior executive member who's now representing this project that
the collective executive team decided that they want to move forward with. Now, why is this
really important? Because that project sponsor is a direct link to the project manager and the
strategy that's going on in the organization. That project sponsor is supposed to provide the
high level why are we doing this? And what exactly is that we want you to do project manager and
actually to hang out with the project manager to help course correct. And ensure that that project
manager is successful. Why? Because the success of the project manager and the team is going to help
ensure that that project sponsor is addressing the needs of the organization, that the executive
team decided that they wanted for everyone to go towards, hence starting that project.
Project manager. Okay. This could be your role if you're here watching this. Project manager really
has the overarching responsibility to ensure that the scope statement that is in the project charter
actually comes to fruition and is delivered at the end. Now, what does this include
from a project manager perspective? Obviously, working very closely with a lot of individuals.
They're working closely with their project team. They have to ensure that they're working closely
with executive members as well, and their sponsor, as well as steering committees. But we'll look
into that definition a little bit later. Now, when it comes to additional activities, they're
also responsible to ensure that everything is set up and disorganized. Documentation is there.
Creating the scope statement, really vetting out the initial information that the sponsor
was to give you if you were lucky and if not to actually create it. Do the charter, do the initial
project plan, ensure that there's a kickoff. Ensure and monitor, course correct when needed.
Do risk assessment. Oh my goodness. There is so much that a project manager has to do.
This is why it is a very specific role. Now, if you're interested in a little bit more,
you can go to the search bar on YouTube and go Adriana Girdler,
"What does a project manager do?" And that will give you some additional information as well.
Now, before we jump into the next team role, I want to remind you to stick around to the end
of this video, where I'm going to share with you how to get your hands on my guide on project's top
10 mistakes. The customer. Oh, yes. How often we forget about this, particularly when the projects
are internal and we're delivering to another department. We sometimes don't think of that
department that is going to get the end result of the deliverable of the project as a customer.
Easier when you're talking about a product, and you're actually handing it off to an
actual customer who's going to purchase something, but it does become really
important that you understand every project has a customer, and that is the end user
who's going to receive the deliverable. And in essence, going to either take that responsibility
and own it or going to purchase it, et cetera. So it becomes really important that you understand
the customer, they're needs. And if need be depending on the type of customer, bring them in
the loop, bring them in the process. You may have to educate them, share with them training related
stuff so that they themselves can train their own department individuals, et cetera. So the
customer becomes really important. The cool thing with a customer is a customer's input becomes
important and that's the rule that they play is to understand what's being delivered and to provide
suggestions and ideas so that the project can really hum perfectly and deliver on their needs.
Project team members. Okay. A project cannot exist without team members. You cannot expect a project
manager not only to orchestrate everything, but to be a task executor as well. Now, your project team
members are subject matter expert called SMEs and they understand what it is that they have
to deliver to ensure, or actually the task they have to do in order to ensure that deliverable.
So your project team members are really important. And you want to think about your project team
members as who do I have to include? Kind of think of it along the lines of this, who do
I need to include that's going to help build the deliverable? So that may include engineers. That
may include designers or developers. Then you want to ask the question, who's going to test
and make sure the quality is good? So you want to make sure you bring in project team members who
have that quality background, the compliance background, maybe some accessibility related
expertise that they can quality check with. You also want to talk about documentation and
training. So who's going to do our training and who's going to do our documentation?
So that becomes important where you may need to include someone from a training department,
a communications department. These are things that become really important. It's not just bringing
a group of people together to execute tasks. It's bringing both the right group of people
together, so that they can focus on their expertise and ensure that your
project sings and hums. And ultimately, you're going to reach the deliverable.
So your project team members are the heartbeat. And with the project manager, it's all of you
working together to ensure that harmony. Now, if you are really liking what I'm saying right now,
and you're enjoying the content, please give this video a like. It tells you too that we're doing a
good job, allowing us to spread our message to more or people and grow this community.
Steering committee. Okay. Steering committee is made up of a group of usually senior executives or
senior management that represent the departments or the subject matter expert areas that are within
your project to ensure that you provide them with updates and they are your roadblock removals.
They're also there to approve anything that you may need to get approval of,
maybe to provide some resources and budgeting. So they work with you throughout the duration
of your project. In fact, you have meetings with the steering committee members and you
update them on your progress and you present to them things that you need their assistance with.
They are executives. They have power that potentially you don't. So if you want to know
a little bit more of steering committee members, I actually have another video
strictly on this topic because it is so important. And if you go to the YouTube search bar,
Adriana Girdler steering committee, you will then be able to see some additional information
on this. But I highly recommend you have steering committees. I have come across projects where
they have a makeshift steering committee. I'm going to recommend if you can formalize it,
totally do. Because these individuals are focusing on improving things, removing your road blocks,
giving your resources, and ensuring that if you need more money because your budget, then they're
going to look in order to give that to you. So really important to bring them along your journey.
Stakeholders. You may have heard this. And I know for some people, myself included in the beginning
of my project management journey, I always got confused with stakeholders. What exactly are
stakeholders? Stakeholders are anyone who has a stake in the project. Now, what does that mean?
It actually is a range because everyone has a different stake in the project. Your sponsor
has a different stake. They need to ensure that the project's strategy or their strategy that
they wanted the project to execute on comes to fruition. Team members have a different stake,
but they're also stakeholders. Your steering committee members are stakeholders. The customer's
a stakeholder. And guess what? End users are stakeholders, but all of them have a different
need. So the cool thing about stakeholders and their role is really to be informed of what's
going on and potentially provide input depending on the type of stakeholder that they are.
Project coordinator. Now, I love this last, not because project coordinators are not important.
Maybe it's saving the best for last, but depending on your project and how complex your project is,
project coordinators become really helpful. They're the right hand to the project manager.
They're executing potentially doing a lot of the tactical stuff that a project manager is
overseeing strategically. They're also looking at schedules and ensuring that
people are getting what they need to have done. A little bit of chasing. We all know
when it comes to project management, it's a little bit of babysitting that's going on.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it. So that project coordinator becomes very helpful, because it
helps the project manager to really keep on top of things and really be the legs for the project
manager to ensure that things are getting done. Okay. Now that you know the people you need to
assemble in order to have a really successful project team, the next thing that becomes really
important in your arsenal, oh, my goodness, is this. You need to understand the top 10 mistakes
about projects and how to avoid them. This is free for you because this is so important.
So check it out. There's a link below this video, click on it, and you can download this.