PRINCE2 7th Edition project management team
Commissioning (business layer)
The commissioning party within the business is responsible for providing the project mandate, identifying the executive, defining the project level tolerances within which the project board will work, and determining whether to authorize any potential breach of a project-level tolerance.
Directing (project board)
The project board has representations from the business, user, and supplier communities and is accountable for the project’s success. It is also responsible for the overall direction and management of the project within the constraints established by the business layer.
The project board authorizes the start and completion of each stage, including setting stage tolerances (such as people, timelines, resources, and sustainability targets).
The project board is responsible for determining whether to authorize any deviation that breaches or is forecast to breach the agreed stage tolerances and for communicating with the business and other impacted stakeholders as decided in the communication management approach.
Managing (project manager)
The project manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project within the constraints established by the project board. The project manager’s primary responsibility is to manage the relationships within the project to ensure that the project produces the products by the strategic objectives and the agreed requirements (such as quality, sustainability, time, cost, scope, benefits, and risk performance goals).
Delivering (team managers)
Team managers and team members are responsible for the day-to-day management and decision-making for their element of the project within the constraints established by the project manager, co-creating where required with other team members from across the project ecosystem.
Project management team structure
The PRINCE2 method requires that certain roles (with associated responsibilities) are fulfilled on every project. As long as the responsibilities are fully allocated, the roles can be shared or combined, within certain limits, to align with the skills and capabilities of the project team and the project’s needs.
Project management team structure: The project management team structure is composed of the project board, project manager, team managers, and project assurance and support roles.
Project team: PRINCE2 uses the term project team to cover all people required to allocate their time to the project.
Commissioning (business layer)
The commissioning party within the business is responsible for providing the project mandate, identifying the executive, defining the project-level tolerances within which the project board will work, and determining whether to authorise any potential breach of a project-level tolerance.
Directing (project board)
The project board has representations from the business, user, and supplier communities and is accountable for the project’s success. It is also responsible for the overall direction and management of the project within the constraints established by the business layer.
The project board authorises the start and completion of each stage, including setting stage tolerances (such as people, timelines, resources, and sustainability targets).
The project board is responsible for determining whether to authorise any deviation that breaches or is forecast to breach the agreed stage tolerances and for communicating with the business and other impacted stakeholders as decided in the communication management approach.
Managing (project manager)
The project manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project within the constraints established by the project board. The project manager’s primary responsibility is to manage the relationships within the project to ensure that the project produces the products by the strategic objectives and the agreed requirements (such as quality, sustainability, time, cost, scope, benefits, and risk performance goals).
Delivering (team managers)
Team managers and team members are responsible for the day-to-day management and decision-making for their element of the project within the constraints established by the project manager, co-creating where required with other team members from across the project ecosystem.
Project Executive
The business appoints the project executive as the single point of accountability for the project and is ultimately accountable for its success. This accountability cannot be delegated.
The project executive secures funding for the project and is responsible for the business case and the continued business justification. They are responsible for effectively governing the project in a way aligned with the business strategy, including ensuring longer-term thinking on topics such as environmental or social impacts.
There can be up to one project executive role, which cannot be combined with the project manager role. In organisations with a job-sharing scheme, there is still a one-to-one allocation of the business role (job) to the project role (project executive). However, additional arrangements may be needed to clarify how the single point of accountability will be maintained by the job holders who share the business role.
The business’ policies and guidance relating to job-sharing are likely to address such scenarios, and they should be reflected in the project executive’s role description and the project initiation documentation.
Senior user
The senior user represents the user community and is accountable for the approach taken to capture user requirements and the benefits specification aligned to the business case.
The senior user is responsible for:
● ensuring the approach gains user buy-in to the project
● monitoring the products against the requirements in line with the business case
● demonstrating to the business that the forecasted benefits in the business case are on track to be realised
● controlling change to requirements and benefits, whether arising from the users, the business, or the project itself
● The successful handover and adoption of products into the business and continued realisation of benefits after the project closed.
The senior user must ensure sufficient ongoing commitment from people in the user community to support these activities, mainly when there is a longer-term commitment beyond the project’s lifespan, such as realising benefits.
Depending on the scale and complexity of the user community, more than one person may be required to represent the users, but this should be kept to a minimum.
Senior supplier
The senior supplier represents the supplier community involved in all project product delivery aspects. The senior supplier must ensure sufficient ongoing commitment of people and resources from the supplier organisation (s) to support the project work.
The senior supplier is accountable for the quality of the products delivered by the suppliers and for the technical integrity of the project.
In many cases, the senior supplier also represents the interests of those who will provide the maintenance services for the specialist products after the closure of the project (for example, engineering maintenance and support).
Exceptions to this do occur, however (for example, when the business provides maintenance services, such as an internal IT department, or is outsourced to a different supplier).
In this instance, a senior user will more likely represent the operations and maintenance interests. The distinction is optional; what matters is that operations, service and support interests are represented appropriately from the outset.
Depending on the scale and complexity of the supplier community, more than one person may be required to represent the suppliers, but this should be kept to a minimum.
Project board
All PRINCE2 projects must have a project board comprising the project executive, senior user, and senior supplier roles. On smaller and less complex projects, the role of the project executive can be combined with the senior user or supplier’s role.
Combining the senior user and senior supplier roles is not recommended to avoid conflicts of interest in decision-making and ensure that the perspectives and interests of the user and supplier communities are adequately represented on the project.
The project board has authority and responsibility for the project within the project tolerances set by the business, often captured in a project mandate. They are responsible for creating the right environment for the project to succeed, including:
● having sufficient funding, people, and resources to deliver the project objectives
● establishing explicit feedback loops to support adapting and evolving the project
● assuring all aspects of the project’s performance and products independently of the project manager
● ensuring business strategy and objectives are reflected in the business case
● ensuring the project and its management approaches are aligned with the business’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments
● setting stage tolerances to enable management by exception
● governing the project and determining the rules, constraints, shared values, and perspectives needed to guide decision-making at all levels
● establishing the tolerances and change budget to support effective decision-making
● focusing on the safety and well-being of the project team
● monitoring and supporting social cohesion within the project ecosystem
● managing relationships at the interface of the organisational ecosystem and project ecosystem.
An effective project board requires the right level of authority for the nature and scale of the project and credibility across the project ecosystem.
Project manager
The project manager has the authority to run the project on behalf of the project board within the agreed project tolerances and constraints. They are responsible for the day-to-day management of a project, including:
● managing and, where appropriate, delegating the work to the team managers or team members
● setting the work package tolerances and constraints for the team managers and project support roles to work within
● ensuring decisions are being made in line with the project board guidance and tolerances
● managing relationships within the project ecosystem, including project assurance roles and the project board
● monitoring and supporting the safety and well-being of team members and the sustainability of the project approach.
Depending on the project’s scale and complexity and the project manager’s skill and capacity, the project manager may also perform the team manager and project support roles or delegate these directly to team members.
The project manager’s responsibility as a single focus means the role should be kept from other roles.
In organisations with a job-sharing scheme, there is still a one-to-one allocation of the business role (job) to the project role (project manager).
However, additional arrangements may be needed to clarify how the single point of accountability will be maintained by the job holders who share the business role. The business’ policies and guidance relating to job-sharing will likely address such scenarios. The policies should be reflected in the project manager’s role description and the project initiation documentation.
Team manager
Team managers are responsible for delivering the work allocated to them within the tolerances and constraints agreed upon by the project manager. The project manager assigns work to a team manager as a work package, in line with the commercial management approach.
The team manager is responsible for:
● delivering the products to the agreed specifications
● setting the tolerances and constraints for team members to work within
● ensuring any decisions their team needs to make are in line with the project manager’s guidance and the tolerances
● managing relationships both within their team and any interfaces with other teams, the project manager, project assurance, and project support
● monitoring and supporting the safety and well-being of team members and the sustainability of the team’s approach.
Project assurance
Project board members are accountable for assuring their respective areas of concern (business assurance, user assurance, supplier assurance).
The project board is responsible for establishing how project assurance will be undertaken, ensuring clarity in the roles and responsibilities and how those appointed to assurance roles will interact.
Subject to who has the knowledge, skills, and capacity to support the project team, the assurance tasks can be undertaken by the board members, appointed from the wider business, or selected from an external party.
Project assurance roles cannot be assigned to the project manager, team manager, project team members, or project support. Where the project assurance roles are delegated, the respective project board member remains accountable.
Project support
Project support is responsible for providing administrative support, facilitating meetings and workshops, advice and guidance on the project tools, planning support, risk management, issue management, and change management.
Although the role is the project manager’s responsibility, it can be delegated to suppliers, individuals, or groups within the business or to other team members.
This depends on the project’s scale and complexity and the project manager’s skills, knowledge, and capacity. Some organisations establish a project office to support the delivery of projects, which can fulfil this role.
Project support can help integrate the project ecosystem, including gaining feedback to improve working, evolving project direction, and building social cohesion.
Project support must be kept separate from project assurance roles to maintain the independence of assurance.
