Roles and Responsibilities

Project managers have the responsibility of delivering the work of the project, but they are not always the manager of the individuals doing that work. Meeting early on with team members and their immediate supervisors to set expectations for both work assignments and communication with supervisors is important. This information can be organized in a RACI Matrix (see Table 3 example), which shows each interested party matrixed with specific tasks, activities, or deliverables. They are identified as one of the following for each task, activity, or deliverable:[3]

• Responsible: Person who completes the task
• Accountable: Person who makes decisions about the task
• Consulted: Person who is consulted regarding the decision-making process and specific tasks
• Informed: Person who is updated on decisions and actions during the project

Table 3 RACI Project Roles (RACI Matrix for Quality Rating Standards Review and Update)

Be sure to review deliverables of the project early as well as timelines and the expected level of effort from the team member. Ask for input on any known or potential issues that may impact the ability of the team member to contribute. Finally, discuss in as much detail as possible the person’s specific work so they can flag any other barriers, such as a training need, prior to the work beginning. Taking the time up-front to form relationships with the individual and the supervisor will pay off later.

Communicate Effectively

Creating and following a Communication Plan allows the project manager to meet expectations by getting the right information to the right people at the right time. The plan should identify the following for each interested party:

• What information do they need?
• How often do they need it?
• What method of communication will be used to deliver the information?
• What response should be expected from the individual?

As the example Communication Plan for a generic project in Table 4 illustrates, the execution of a useful Communication Plan requires both written communication and effective meetings.

Table 4. Communication Plan Example 

Written Communication Tools

When conducting meetings, each agenda item should either pass information on, gather information, or be used to come to a decision on an item. In group meetings, the facilitation can make or break the meeting. A group project status meeting is used to frequently check in with all team members present. It provides a chance to get updates at a high level from members, to identify issues to be elevated for resolution and to check in on tasks that are in progress.

Some project managers use an Open Task Log as a running list of the current tasks and their status. In the planning phase, we broke the work down into the smallest work packages. These packages show up on the log. During the project status meeting, the Open Task Log is updated by team members, and items are removed as they are completed or added as new work begins. If an item is sitting in the log for several weeks or months, it may be an indication that either the item needs to be broken down further into a smaller work package or that the item may need to be elevated for discussion or resolution.

Conducting Effective Meetings

One approach to conducting effective group meetings is an approach created by Dr. Jolie Bain Pillsbury called Results Based Facilitation, which uses a competency-based approach to facilitating meetings to get results. The six competencies are:

1. Hold Roles: Understand and utilize the boundaries of each person’s authority, role, and task within the project and facilitate the meetings with neutrality and in a way that gives the work back to the group.
2. Hold Conversations: Within meetings, provide context (e.g., “We will have 30 minutes to brainstorm ways to address … .”), encourage participants to listen with curiosity and openness without rushing to respond, and present effective questions that further the conversation (i.e., questions that are open-ended rather than yes or no answers).
3. Hold Groups: Support the group to move the work forward through sequencing, summarizing, and synthesizing the conversations that are happening during the meeting.
4. Hold 3R Meetings: Utilize the 3Rs (relationships, resources, and results) model for meeting design, which encourages facilitators to begin with identifying the results that a meeting should produce and then working backward to determine the agenda and invitees based upon which resources and relationships will be needed to accomplish those.
5. Hold Mental Models: Understanding the mental models (i.e., the way an individual thinks about their environment globally and locally to understand how the world works, their underlying motivation) for individuals and the group as a whole helps meeting facilitators effectively use tools to address and account for these factors in meetings.
6. Hold Action and Results: Help team members understand the context of the work within a larger system so individuals can see how their contribution to results during meetings in turn contributes to success in the project, improvement in the programs administered in the state or territory, and improved outcomes for the families served.

In addition to group project status meetings, individual meetings with project members are also essential to the success of a project. While a group meeting may be used to gather input and status updates from team members to further the work, individual meetings are times for checking in at a detailed level with each person and delving into any barriers to on-time work.

Managing Deliverables

During the planning phase of the project, the project manager and the staff work to define the end product or deliverable to the best of their ability. The level of specificity put into the definition of the deliverable helps guide the way the work will happen. The following are considerations that may help a project manager stay on track with deliverables:

• Use individual check-in meetings to both zoom in to the detail and also help individual team members zoom out to see where their work fits into the larger deliverable.
• Use project status meetings to connect the work of individuals or smaller teams to the work of the whole team and also to the larger deliverables.
• Use visual representations of the work, such as a dashboard or infographic, to show progress for the team and in reports to the executive sponsor and others in the state or territory.
• Use organizational tools such as the Open Task Log, Work Breakdown Structure, Change Log (see “Closeout” section), Project Schedule, and Project Budget to monitor individual pieces of the work to ensure deliverables are on track and on budget.
• Communicate early and often to executive sponsors about issues in the project timeline or budget that may impact deliverables.