Programme/Project Roles

Leadership at all levels is essential. Skilled and experienced individuals with clearly defined authority, accountability and responsibility are vital for leadership to be effective within the City & County of Swansea.

The roles within the Council's Governance Structure provide the basis for effective Programme and Project Management, tailored to suit individual needs. The Council has taken great responsibility on selecting the appropriate staff member who has the required personality and skills to undertake the role effectively.

The SPO have a database set up with fact sheets for every role within the Governance Structure. These fact sheets are available to all staff via the tutorial website and gives detailed descriptions of the tasks and responsibilities. 

Here is a brief description of the main roles which have been appointed within the Council:

Programme Director (this is named "Senior Responsible Owner" in MSP)

This role is ultimately accountable for the success of the programme and is responsible for enabling the Council to exploit the new environment resulting from the programme, meeting the new business needs and delivering new levels of performance, benefits and service delivery.

Programme Manager/Programme Advisor

This role is responsible, on behalf of the Programme Director, for successful delivery of the new capability. The role requires the effective co-ordination of the projects and their interdependencies, and any risks and other issues that may arise. In most cases, the Programme Manager will work full-time on the programme, as the role is crucial for creating and maintaining enthusiasm. Programme Advisors are more likely to work part-time.

Change Architect/Manager

The Change Architect/Manager is primarily benefits-focused and the role is responsible, on behalf of the Programme Director, for defining the benefits, assessing progress towards realisation and achieving measured improvements. This role should also have change management skills and enough experience to be able to bring order to complex situations and maintain focus on the programme's objectives.

Programme Support Office

The Programme Support Office may be dedicated to supporting a single programme, or it may support a number of programmes. The level of resourcing will vary depending on the size and capabilities of the Council. The core function of the office is to provide an information hub for the programme.

Project Sponsor (this is named "Executive" in Prince2)

Sponsors are typically Senior Leaders, either selected into the role by other Senior leaders following review of project proposals or self selected to sponsor change initiatives within their own area of control. The Sponsor, in taking on the role, accepts overall accountability on the Business for achieving the project goal and benefits through the Project Manager and Team. As the Sponsor's only route to success is through others, this role demands a high degree of skill and interest in coaching, facilitating and communicating.

Senior User

This role represents the interests of all those who will use or be affected by project and its products. The responsibility of the Senior User starts with the specification user needs and commitment of user resources. As works progresses, it is the responsibility of the Senior User to monitor what is being produced and to ensure that it meets user needs and that the expected benefits are materialised. In very many cases, the Senior User role will require several individuals to adequately represent all the user interests.

Senior Supplier

This role is there to represent the interests of those designing, developing, facilitating, procuring and implementing the projects products. It is quite common for the Senior Supplier role to be filled by a person or people external to the Council although it could be a representative from an internal supplier. 

Project Manager

It is the responsibility of the Project Manager to plan and oversee all the day to day work and to ensure that the project is producing the right projects, at the right time, to the right standards of quality and within the allotted budget. The main tasks include overall planning for the whole of the project, motivation and leadership of Project Staff, liaison with Programme management over related projects, definition of responsibilities for specialist team managers and reporting progress to the project board.

In summary, the Project Manager is there to ensure that a result is achieved which makes it possible to realise the benefits described in the Project Initiation Document (PID).

Project Assurance

This role (on behalf on the Project Board) is required within the Council to assess all aspects of a project's performance and products. Even though the Project Board receive regular progress reports from the Project Manager, independant checks are undertaken to ensure what is being reported is true.