Roles and Responsibilities

In this category, you will learn about the roles and responsibilities of Scrum team members as well as supporting roles such as the Project Sponsor, Steering Committee, and stakeholders, and the differences between project types.

Project Manager (PM)

PMs are responsible for the planning, procurement, and execution of a project or any initiative that has a defined scope, start, and finish, regardless of industry. PMs are the first point of contact for any issues or discrepancies arising from within the heads of various departments in an organization before the problem escalates to higher authorities.

PMs seldom participate directly in the activities that produce the result; rather, they strive to maintain the progress, mutual interaction, and tasks of various parties in such a way that reduces the risk of overall failure, maximizes benefits, and minimizes costs.

A PM is expected to follow the basics of project management and should therefore:

• Complete the Project Charter with the Project Sponsor and sign off
• Define and validate the requirements
• Prepare/support the budget
• Create a project plan in coordination with the team and Project Sponsor
• Identify and mitigate issues and risks
• Monitor execution and provide periodic status updates in the Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tool
• Manage relationships and communications with stakeholders especially if any impediments will impact the scope, timeline, and resources of the project
• Close the project and obtain Project Sponsor sign off

Product Owner

The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and ensuring that the work completed meets the acceptance criteria. The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog, which is a list of work to be done that is not top priority based on workload; Product Backlog items are reviewed and pulled into the workstream as resources become available.

Product Owner responsibilities include:

• Clearly expressing Product Backlog items and ensuring the Scrum team understands the items in the Product Backlog with the appropriate level of detail
• Prioritizing the items in the Product Backlog and refining it as necessary to best achieve goals and missions
• Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what the Scrum team will work on next

The Product Owner may do the above work or have the development team do it. However, the Product Owner remains accountable.

The Product Owner is one person, not a committee. The Product Owner may represent the desires of a committee in the Product Backlog, but those wanting to change a Product Backlog item’s priority must address the Product Owner.

Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the project team, sometimes referred to as the Scrum team, understands Scrum and adheres to Scrum theories, practices, and rules.

The Scrum Master serves Product Owners by facilitating the creation of Product Backlog items, finding techniques for effective Product Backlog management, and facilitating Scrum events such as Sprint Planning meetings, the daily Scrum meeting, Sprint demos, and Sprint retrospectives.

The Scrum Master serves a project team by coaching and mentoring the team in self-organization, demonstrating best Scrum practices, and facilitating Scrum events. The Scrum Master serves the broader organization by helping associates and stakeholders embody Scrum for Agile project management, increasing the productivity of project teams, and collaborating with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organization.

In addition, the Scrum Master is expected to follow standard project management and IT PMO recommendations if no PM is assigned to the project:

• Complete the Project Charter with Project Sponsor and sign off together
• Provide periodic status updates via the PPM tool
• Manage relationships and communications with stakeholders, especially if any impediment might impact the scope, timeline, or resources of a project
• Close the project and obtain Project Sponsor sign off
• Facilitate Scrum events and coach the team and Product Owner whenever necessary (daily stand up, Sprint planning, backlog grooming, Sprint demo/review, Sprint retrospective)

Project Team

The project team includes interdependent individuals who work together toward a common goal and share responsibility for specific outcomes of their organization.

For project teams following the Waterfall methodology, no specific size is recommended but key roles must be identified and defined from the beginning of the project.

For Scrum teams, the maximum recommended team size is nine, including the Scrum Master and Product Owner. Scrum teams are:

• Self-organized, choosing how they want to work without being directed by others outside the team
• Cross-functional, representing all competencies required to complete the work. This allows the team to not depend on anyone outside the team to complete work
• Designed to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity; Scrum teams deliver products iteratively and incrementally, maximizing opportunities for feedback

In all cases, each team member is responsible for giving constructive feedback, recognizing value, and utilizing each other’s unique strengths.

Usually project teams are only used for a defined period or until the goal is achieved.

Project Sponsor

The Project Sponsor is an individual (often a director or executive) with overall accountability for the project. They are primarily concerned with ensuring that the project delivers the agreed-upon business benefits and act as representatives of the business organization, playing a vital leadership role.

The role of the Project Sponsor is critical to strategic planning, successful implementation of project objectives, and project alignment with the organization’s strategy and portfolio direction. The role of Project Sponsor covers the financial and organizational responsibilities and activities related to decisive governance of the project.

Without a Project Sponsor, a project cannot begin.

The Project Sponsor is responsible for:

• Participating in the initial project planning, including developing the Project Charter and the project scope
• Negotiating project funding
• Providing direction and guidance for key business strategies and project initiatives
• Reviewing and approving changes to the project, including schedule and priority changes
• Identifying project-critical success factors and approving deliverables
• Identifying and qualifying project benefits, and managing the benefit realization
• Involving stakeholders and assisting in ensuring ongoing commitment through communication and involvement
• Evaluating the project’s success upon completion

Program Manager

The Program Manager can be thought of as a lead or senior PM. The role is mainly operational and they are responsible for overseeing the successful handoff and delivery of project outcomes into a program delivering ongoing management of work processes and technical solutions. Often, a program is created when a solution requires ongoing support or governance to ensure sustainability.

The Program Manager must have strong practical experience in project management and a good understanding of the wider objectives of the program. Responsibilities include:

• Defining the program governance (controls)
• Planning the overall program and monitoring its progress
• Managing the program’s budget
• Managing risks and issues and taking corrective measures
• Coordinating projects and their interdependencies
• Managing and utilizing resources across projects
• Managing stakeholders’ communication
• Aligning to organizational/strategic direction when creating program goals and objectives
• Managing program documents
• Resolving issues and scope change requests within a shared governance structure

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is used to organize key project stakeholders—representatives from all impacted teams such as the Executive Leader, Project Sponsor, and all project team members. The committee is meant to empower them to “steer” a project (or group of projects) to successful conclusion while aligning to strategic direction.

This committee has the responsibility of making decisions that impact the project outcome. Should any changes in the project happen, they must first be presented and accepted by a member of the Steering Committee. Only in the case of acceptance are the changes introduced to the project. The Steering Committee assesses and accepts or declines the changes based on impact to timeline and other factors by means of consensus from the group.

The function of a Steering Committee is to provide support, advocacy, and enable the projects which they oversee for success. A Steering Committee is NOT designed to manage or run a project.

Steering Committee members are selected based on their stake in the project. The Committee should only include the main stakeholders and can include C-level executives depending on the project’s strategy, scope, and cost. An effective Steering Committee should be focused on fast decision-making and not simply listening to reporting from project team members.

A Steering Committee is responsible for:

• Reviewing and approving the Project Charter and funding
• Reviewing and approving changes made to the project resource plan, schedule, scope, goals, cost estimates, etc.
• Making strategic decisions regarding the prioritization of project deliverables
• Reviewing and approving the project development strategy
• Reviewing and suggesting solutions for the issues critical to project success
• Resolving conflicts between stakeholder groups

Stakeholders

A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project. Stakeholders include all members of the project team as well as all interested entities who may be internal or external to Ecolab. They may be actively involved in the project or have interests that may be positively or negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project.

It is critical for project success to identify the stakeholders early in the project or phase and to analyze their levels of interest, their individual expectations, as well as their importance and influence. This initial assessment should be reviewed and updated regularly. Most projects will have a diverse number of stakeholders depending on their size, type, and complexity. This enables the PM to focus on the relationships necessary to ensure the success of the project.

Stakeholder identification is a continuous process throughout the entire project life cycle. Failure to do so can lead to delays, cost increases, unexpected issues, and other negative consequences, including project cancellation.

Stakeholders are responsible for:

• Reviewing deliverables
• Providing talent resources
• Clarifying requirements and bringing insight about the business
• Making timely decisions and setting priorities

Examples of stakeholders include:

• Project Sponsor
• Customers and users who will approve and manage the project’s product, service, or result
• Vendors, suppliers, or contractors
• External business partners providing installation, customization, training, or support
• Procurement entities, financial institutions, government regulators, etc.

Project Types

Proof of Concept (POC)

The POC is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has practical potential. A POC is usually small and may or may not be complete.

The main purpose is to prove an idea is possible with minimal or no integration required, and sample data only. POC architecture does not need to be used going forward and is “thrown away.”

To start a POC, there should be a clear sponsor, at least one use case, and ideally, inputs from a design thinking session. At the end of the POC, the concept must be approved or rejected based on the POC objectives and viability of a scaled product.

Duration: 30-90 days

Resources might include:

• Business Sponsor
• Technology SME + project team (does not need to be fully dedicated)
• IT Business Partner and Enterprise Architecture lead
• EDC full stack developers and Technology partner (not always)

A PM is not required for a POC.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

An MVP is a deliverable with just enough features to satisfy early customers. With few specifications, the MVP can be shared with early customers quickly to obtain feedback for future product development. Gathering insights from an MVP is often less expensive than developing a product with more features at the outset.

The main purpose is to create a simple product with few specifications and get the product early to customers to accelerate learnings.

An MVP will require well-defined use cases, funding, a clear Sponsor, and Enterprise Architecture approval if required.

Duration: 90-120 days

Resources might include:

• PM/Scrum Master + project team
• Business Analyst
• Product Owner and Business Sponsor
• IT Business Partner and Enterprise Architecture lead
• EDC full stack developers and Technology partner

Projects and Programs

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or solution. A project will typically last from 90 days to a year. The temporary nature of a project means the work has a defined beginning and end. The end is reached when the project’s objectives have been achieved. Success is measured by product quality, timeliness, budget compliance, and degree of customer satisfaction. A project may be terminated if the objectives will not or cannot be met, or if the need for the project no longer exists.

A project may also be terminated if the client (e.g., customer or sponsor) wishes to terminate the project. Temporary does not necessarily mean the duration of the project is short. It refers to the project’s engagement and its longevity. Temporary does not typically apply to the product, service, or solution created by the project; most projects are undertaken to create a lasting outcome.

A program is defined as a group of related projects, subprograms, and program activities managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.

Duration: Typically from 90 days to 1 year. Exceptions under 90 days when there is significant and key resource usage.

Resources might include:

• PM/Scrum Master + Team
• Business Analyst
• Product Owner and Business Sponsor
• Steering Committee
• IT Business Partner and Enterprise Architecture lead
• EDC full stack developers and Technology partner (not always)

Examples of project work include business application development, M&A integrations, infrastructure strategic upgrades, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) deployments and significant enhancements, and architecture catalogue implementation.

Product

A product is a tangible item produced to create specific value for a group of customers and to the organization that provides it. A product can be something physical, it can be a digital product (a phone application, a website, etc.), or it can even be a service (consulting on how to adopt Agile). Most importantly, it must satisfy a need or desire. Examples of products include Chatbot (Ecolab Virtual Assistant) and the Customer Portal.

Additionally, the product creates value for the organization by directly creating revenue (e.g., Microsoft Office), helping to develop other products (e.g., Visual Studio), providing marketing (e.g., Google Ads) or selling another product (e.g., App Store or iTunes).

Products continue to be developed and supported until they reach their end of life and are discontinued. Products are considered successful if they meet customers’ needs and business goals.