pm4dev, 2015 –management for development series © 

The Roles, 
Responsibilities and 
Skills in Project 
Management  
PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR 
DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS 
 The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR

DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS

A methodology to manage development

projects for international humanitarian
assistance and relief organizations

© IMPACTO4DEV 2015
Our eBook is provided free of charge on the condition that it is not copied, modified, published,
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Feel free to distribute this eBook to any one you like, including peers, managers and
organizations to assist their project management activities.

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

ROLE, RESPONSIBILITIES AND SKILLS

Role of the Project Manager

One of the mistakes development organizations make is appointing a

project manager only for the depth of her technical skills. It is not
unusual to find a good engineer being promoted to project manager
just for her technical competence. While it is true that one must have
a good understanding of the technical aspects of the project, the
principal areas of competence that are required in the management
competence areas and these include communicating; planning,
negotiating, coaching, decision-making, and leadership. These skills
are often overlooked at the time of hiring or appointing a project
manager; and they are supplemented by the functional support
provided by the organizations back-office operations, such as
accounting, human resource and logistics.

Another common mistake is the poor definition of the role of the

project manager, usually the job descriptions are too vague and put
too much emphasis on the technical competencies required for the job,
organizations make the mistake to assign the project manager the
tasks and activities designed for the project, this may be true for
certain small projects but for most of them the role of the project
manager is one of integrator, communicator, and facilitator.

The project manager is the ultimate person accountable for the project
she is the one whose job it is to make sure the project is done, and
would be the principal contact person for the donor, beneficiaries and
the key stakeholders. As responsible for the project she needs to make
key decisions regarding the management of the resources available to
the project, and to do that the organization’s senior management
needs to appoint the project manager, and give her the appropriate
level of responsibility and authority for project direction and control.

A Project Manager is also accountable to the Program Manager or

Organization Director, depending on the size of the organization; and
is accountable to the beneficiaries for delivering the project as
planned. The Project Manager has the delegated authority to commit

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

the organization on matters regarding performance that are within the

scope of the project and the contract with the donor.

Integrator

A key responsibility of the project manager is to ensure the proper

integration of the project management processes and coordinate the
different phases trough the project management cycle, that ensures
that all areas of the project come together to deliver the project to a
successful conclusion. This is the main role of the project manager; it
is not related to the technical responsibilities of the project, which in
most cases are managed by the project staff. The role of integrator
involves three specific areas of responsibility:

 Developing the project management plans, which involves the

development of all project planning documents into a consistent,
coherent project plan document
 Implementing the project plan, which involves the execution of the
project plan and ensuring all activities are performed by all the
people involved
 Monitor and control the plan, which involves measuring the initial
results against the intended objectives and coordinating all changes
to the plans.

Project Plan Development

A project plan is the document used to coordinate all the project

plans and used as a guide to implement and monitor the project.
Plans should be dynamic and the project manager role is to ensure
the plans have a level of flexibility to allow changes as the project
makes progress or when the project environment changes. A
project plan is a tool the project manager uses to lead the project
team and asses the status of the project.

In order to create a good project plan the project manager needs to

practice the art of integration, since most of the information
contained on the project plans come from many sources, usually
from subject matter experts and project stakeholders. The role of
coordinating all this information gives the project manager the
opportunity to build a good understanding of the overall project and
how it will be used to guide its implementation.

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

Development projects are unique, and so are the project plans. A

large project involving many people over many years would require
a detailed project plan with complete and in depth information
spanning many pages; on the other hand, a small project that
involves a few people over a couple of months might have a project
plan a few pages long. The project manager will tailor the project
plan to fit the needs of the project; the plans are intended to guide
the project implementation, not to hinder it with too detailed
instructions.

The content of a project plan can be used as a guideline for new

projects or as a check list to evaluate current project plans. Either
way the project manager or the development organization can
decide the minimum content of the project plan. It is a good
practice if the organizations develop basic guidelines to help the
creation of the project plan, since this document will be used as a
communication tool with the donor, beneficiaries, management and
other key stakeholders.

Project Plan Implementation

Project plan implementation includes all the efforts necessary to

achieve the activity outputs, implementing the plan is essentially a
guiding proactive role accomplished by a constant referral back to
the project plan. This is the place where the project will spend most
of its resources and it requires that the project manager manages
and monitors the performance of the project activities as described
in the project plan.

Project planning and implementation are closely related and

intertwined activities. Since the main objective of developing a
project plan is to guide the project implementation, a good plan
should help produce good outputs, which ultimately lead to good
outcomes. A good approach to help the coordination between
project planning and project implementation is to have the same
people who plan the activities be the people who will implement
them. The project team needs to experience and build the skills to
develop and implement a plan, the team that implements the plan
has a better chance at success if its part of the plan development.
Although project managers are responsible for developing the

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

overall project management plan, they must solicit inputs from the
project team members for each process area.

Project implementation requires a different set of skills; such as

leadership, communication, facilitating and negotiating skills.
Project managers must provide leadership to interpret the project
plans and the implementation guidelines, project managers must
also be able to communicate with the project team and
stakeholders to develop and implement good project plans. Project
managers and their staff must posses the required expertise for
successful project implementation. If they don’t, it is the projects
manager’s job to help develop the necessary skills, or find
somebody else who can to the job or alert the organizations
management of the problem.

During implementation the best practices and good results from the
early activities needs to be documented as to benefit future
activities and facilitate improvements to the project plan

Project Plan Monitoring and Control

Monitoring and controlling the project involves identifying,

evaluating and managing changes throughout the project
management life cycle, the role of the project manager in this area
involves achieving the following objectives:

 Ensure that changes are beneficial and contribute to the project

success; this is achieved by influencing the factors that create
changes and by making trade-offs among the projects
constraints such as scope, schedule, budget and quality.
 Communicate significant changes to management, beneficiaries
and donors, specially the ones that will impact the projects
constraints.
 Update project plans and record changes.

Performance reports provide information to measure the status of

the project against the original plans or baseline. The purpose of
the report is to identify any discrepancies or issues, the project
team is then responsible to determine the best corrective actions
needed. Changes are common in projects but they must be
managed and properly documented, as they are the basis for
project audits and help inform the project evaluators as to the

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

reasons for the changes. Part of this role is to ensure that lessons
learned are captured and shared with the organization to provide
guidance to current or future projects.

Communicator

This is another important role of the project manager, but one that is
often overlooked and not properly taken in consideration when
assigning a project manager to a new project. Communication is
providing relevant, timely information to the right people about the
project. Communication is used to inform and educate the project
stakeholders about the project objectives, risks, assumptions and
constraints.

The communication or informational role is the most critical role for

the success of the project. The organization functional managers,
project staff, donors and key stakeholders need to make critical
decision about the project, and the information they receive must be
relevant, on time and accurate. Project managers in the role of
communicators take three functions: to gather information from
project staff and other people involved with the project; distribute the
information to stakeholders, which includes the donor, beneficiaries,
and the organizations functional managers; and the last function is to
transmit the information to the external environment, such as the
general public to gain support to the project.

Project managers spend most of their time communicating. They hold

meetings; develop reports (writing as well as orally) to the, donors,
beneficiaries or senior management; they listen to issues; solve
problems; provide direction and constantly negotiate for resources.
Project managers’ success depends greatly on their ability to
communicate. The project manager uses two forms of communication:

1. Formal communications which include progress reports and

presentations to management or the beneficiaries
2. Informal communications which includes email messages,
telephone calls, and team meetings

The effectiveness with which this role is used is important to the

success of the project and the project manager.

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

Leader

A project manager is above all a leader; the team needs direction for
the life of the project and the project manager is responsible for
leading the team to achieve the vision that the project has created, a
project manager does this by facilitating, coordinating and motivating
the team to achieve the project goals; this is a central role of the
project manager and her ability to influence, inspire, direct,
communicate will determine her effectiveness as a project manager.
Leading is a central role; it involves working with and through others
to achieve the objectives of the project. It is through the project
manager’s ability to lead will determine the success of the project.

The focus on this role is to ensure the project team and the project
stakeholders have a clear vision of the objectives the project aims to
achieve. During the curse of the project is not unusual that the team
starts shifting its attention from the final objective; here is where the
leadership role is needed and the project manager needs to
communicate and motivate the team to the ultimate goal. The
leadership role includes the facilitator, coordinator and motivator roles.

Facilitator

In this role the project manager acts as an individual who

enables the project team to work more effectively; helps them
collaborate and achieve synergy. The project manager is not
responsible to do all the tasks of the project, that is the
responsibility of the project team, the project manager role is to
create the right conditions that enable the project team to carry
their duties.

The project manager also contributes by providing the

framework to facilitate the interactions among the different
groups so that they are able to function effectively. The goal of
this role is to support the project team and the beneficiaries so
that they can achieve exceptional performance. The project
manager encourages full participation from the project team,
promotes mutual understanding with the beneficiaries and
cultivates shared responsibility among all project stakeholders.

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

The facilitator role is mostly used when dealing with

beneficiaries, since the project manager doesn’t have any form
of authority over this group he must provide an environment of
trust where beneficiaries feel comfortable about contributing
ideas and provide input to the project and discover the solutions
that can help achieve the projects objectives.

Coordinator

Coordination means integrating the goals and activities of the

people and groups involved with the project. The functional units
in the organizations, such as finance, human resources and
procurement; and the beneficiaries and the partners involved
with the project, need their activities be coordinated in away
that benefit the project. This role demanded of the project
managers is needed to ensure all these groups are working
towards the same goal. The project managers has to inform each
group about what is expected from the by the project, with out
coordination these groups will loose sight of their role with the
project and may pursue their own interest at the cost of the
project.

The need for coordination depends on the extent to which they

need to be integrated with the activities of other groups; it
depends on the degree of interdependence and the nature of
communication requirements. A high degree of coordination is
needed when factors in the project environment are changing
and there exist a high level of interdependence among the
activities performed by the different groups. This is a case when
one group requires an output coming from another group in
order to complete an activity.

Communication is the best tool to achieve an effective

coordination, the project manager’s role is to ensure that
information is received by all groups at the right time; the
greater the level of complexity and uncertainty about the project
objectives the greater the need for information.

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

The project manager needs to evaluate the best approach to

coordinate formal or informal communications. The approach has
to match the project’s capacity for coordination with its need for
coordination; it is important to know if the need for coordination
is larger than the ability to coordinate then the project manager
increases the resources to help him coordinate.

Motivator

Development projects are highly complex and demanding on the

project staff, this is the reason why the project manager has to
act as a motivator to the team in times of difficulty. Working
with people is not always easy and the factors that provide them
with motivation are different from each other. The project
manager’s role as a motivator is to identify the factors that serve
as an incentive for a project team to take the necessary action to
complete a task within the project constraints. The nature of
development projects; difficult locations, high security risks,
extensive travel, limited accommodations and other factors
contribute to the low motivation of the team.

The project team is an integral part of the project, lack of

motivation can lead to high turnover and low morale which
results in poor performance. Even if the project is able to
develop the best plans and has all the resources needed if
people are not motivated the project will fail. Project Managers
also foster teamwork among all project participants, they act as
catalyst of change to get the beneficiaries, donor, project team
and management of the organization to work and meet the
project goals.

Responsibilities of the Project Manager

Responsibility is an agreement between two or more people for the

intention of achieving a desired result. A organization appoints a
person as the project manager with responsibility to undertake the
project; but even as the organization has transferred the responsibility
for the project, the organization still retains full accountability for the
final result. The project manager must be sure that the assigned

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responsibility is clearly stated and the expected results are mutually

understood and accepted by all stakeholders.

Accountability comes as a result of the assigned responsibility. When

an organization assigns responsibility to a person to manage a project,
the organization must hold that person accountable for achieving the
desired result or provide consequences for poor performance, such as
a negative employee performance rating, reassignment, probation, or
termination. The accountability must be consistent with the
responsibility assigned.

Projects vary in duration, scope, and complexity. On a large or

complex project, the Project Manager may elect to appoint one or
more Assistant Project Managers. The Project Manager may delegate
single or multiple responsibilities, including monitoring responsibility to
an Assistant Project Manager. The Project Manager may direct the
Assistant Project Manager to control different processes of the project;
this may include controlling budgets, and monitoring progress.

When a project manager is given the authority over the project, it

includes the appropriate access to resources to complete the job, such
as access to personnel or signature authority for the expenditure of
funds. Authority must be commensurate with the responsibility
assigned and appropriate to the accountability.

Successful organizations have written policies and procedures that

define how responsibility, accountability, and authority work in the
project management environment. It is important to define in writing
the specific responsibilities and authority the project manager will have
in terms of personnel, equipment, materials, and funds. The
organization must determine and explicitly define the level of authority
the project manager has to hire and terminate team members,
including the level of purchase authority over equipment and materials
necessary to the project or the level of signature authority over other
project expenditures.

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

The project manager has specific accountability for three areas of the
project, accountability to the donor to provide timely and accurate
information; accountability to the beneficiaries for delivering the
project outcomes; and accountability to the organization for managing
the project and follow policies and uphold its values.

In general terms the project manager responsibilities in the project

are: planning, organizing, directing and controlling the project. These
they are part of the project manager’s main role as project integrator.

Planning

Planning involves defining what the project will accomplish, when

it will be completed, how it will be implemented and monitored
and who will do it. The project manager is responsible for
creating the project plans and defining the goals, objectives,
activities and resources needed. The project plans are the
tactical blueprints under which the entire project will be
implemented and will serve as a map to guide the project team,
beneficiaries, donors and management.

The project manager is also responsible for updating the plans

as new changes or modifications are approved, she is
responsible for communicating all stakeholders on the changes
and ensures that the changes are being incorporated in the
activities and tasks of the project team.

Organizing

This responsibility is to establish a structure that will maximize

the efficiency (doing the things right) and effectiveness (doing
the right things) of the project. The project manager, once the
plans have been approved and distributed, has the responsibility
to build and staff the project organization that will be capable to
carry out the plans. Here the focus is on coordination, control of
activities and the flow of information within the project. In this
responsibility the project manager distributes and delegates
authority to project staff.

The project manager must have the ability to determine the type
of project organization that will fit the needs, constraints and

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environment of the project. An important element of

organization is to staff the project with qualified staff who can
take the responsibility for specific elements of the project.

Directing

Once the plans are made, the project organization has been
determined and the project staffed, the responsibilities of the
project manager is to direct, lead and motivate the members of
the project to perform in a unified, consistent and manner. The
project team may have people with different skill sets and
project experience; development projects bring together
different expertise from socials sciences to engineering, the team
members may have not worked together in the past and they
may come in and out of the project at different times. By
directing, the project manager assumes the responsibility that
the project team will follow the vision of the project and all
instructions, mandates and work orders.

Controlling

Controlling is a responsibility to ensure the actions of the project

team contribute toward the project goals; the project manager
must establish standards for performance, measure performance
and compare it with the established standards; detect variations
and make the necessary corrections. This responsibility ensures
that the project is on track.

Management Skills

The evolution of development projects has changed the skills required

of project managers. Not long ago the emphasis was placed on
technical skills and project managers were hired by the experience and
proficiency in the technical area the project was involved in. In the last
years the nature of development projects has changed considerably,
projects are not just one-dimensional approaches focused on a single
solution. Today’s’ development project use multi-dimensional methods
that include different approaches; these may include rights based,
gender, and partnership.

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Project teams involve more and more stakeholders, and behavioral

skills are becoming equally important as technical skills are. In this
new time, to be an effective project manager, may require having an
understanding of general management rather than being a technical
expert. Projects are becoming more complex that it is simply no longer
possible for the project manager to remain a technical expert in all
aspects of the project. Project managers need to spend more of their
time planning, organizing, directing and controlling the project rather
than providing only technical direction.

Project management is both a science and an art; it’s a science

because it requires the use of quantitative analysis such as charts,
graphs, financial data; and an art because it deals with qualitative
analysis such as negotiating, conflict resolution, political, interpersonal
and organizational factors. In order to perform the functions of
management and to assume multiple roles, project managers must be
skilled in both the science and the art of project management. There
are five managerial skills that are essential to successful management:
process, problem solving, negotiating and conceptual skills:

Process Skills

The project manager must have skills to use management

techniques, procedures and tools. She must know how to
interpret a budget report, know how to read a statistical analysis
of a project baseline data, and understand the correct
application of the different management methodologies. In
addition to the above the project manager is expected to have
skills in the effective use of information and communication
technology to help her be more effective in her work.

Process skills are related to working with processes and tools.

They refer to using specialized knowledge and experience related
to project management and the specific methodologies of the
project for implementing project activities. These skills are
necessary to communicate effectively with the project team, to
assess risks, and to make trade-offs between budget, schedule,
scope and quality issues.

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Since project managers do not do the actual work of the project,

they do not need the same technical skill level as the people
performing the work. This is not to say that the project manager
doesn’t need a level of technical expertise, the more expertise
the project manager has in the process area of the project, the
greater his effectiveness in managing the project. Process
expertise is essential to identify potential problems and increases
the ability of the project manager to integrate all aspects of the
project.

The project manager must maintain a general perspective and

not let her technical competence lead to micro-managing or do
the project work. She must concentrate on managing the
project, letting the project team members perform the technical
work and limit her technical involvement to evaluating the work
of the team.

Problem Solving Skills

All projects are prone to encounter problems, problems that

were not identified in the risk or scope definition of the project
and that needs to be managed accordingly. Problem solving
requires a good definition of the problem that is detected early
enough to allow time to respond. In many cases the original
problem is a symptom or a larger problem.

Problem solving skills make use of different techniques, and by

using these techniques the project manager can start to tackle
problems which might otherwise seem huge, overwhelming and
excessively complex. Techniques such as breaking problems
down into manageable parts, identifying root causes of
problems, analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities &
threats, must be mastered in order to solve problems.

Additionally the project manager needs synthesis and analysis

thinking skills. A project manager must be able to synthesize
information—collecting and arrange disparate information into a
meaningful whole. A project manager must be able to see
patterns in information and derive meaning from distinct pieces
of data. Analysis is the skill of breaking a whole into component

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parts, much like decomposing work into a work breakdown

structure (WBS.)

Negotiation Skills

Project managers spend a large portion of their time negotiating

for resources, equipment or other support, and if they do not
have strong negotiating skills, their chances of being successful
are greatly reduced. A large part of negotiation takes place
within the organization to get the resources the project needs,
resources that are being requested by other project managers.

Negotiation is the process of obtaining mutually acceptable

agreements with individuals or groups. Depending on the
projects structure and the level of authorization the project
managers has to negotiate on behalf of the organization.
Negotiation usually include making trade-offs when stakeholders
request changes or modifications to the project and its
resources; negotiation also includes dealing with vendors or
consultants who are bidding for a specific good or service, this
area may require the assistance of specialized staff such as
representatives from legal or the procurement department.

Negotiation skills also come handy when dealing with project

beneficiaries and building agreements that will benefit both the
project and the beneficiaries. Beneficiaries have in many
instances other priorities and participating in the project
activities may not be a main priority. The project manager must
be able to find the best approach to develop common
understanding and align the interest of the beneficiaries with
those of the project.

Conceptual Skills

Conceptual skills is the ability to coordinate and integrate all the

projects efforts, it requires for the project manager to see the
project as a whole and not just the sum of its parts, ability to
understand how all the parts relate and depend on one another.
This skill is useful for its ability to anticipate how a change on
one part of the project will affect the entire project. The bigger

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and more complex is the project, the larger is the need for this
type of skill. This skill helps the project manager keep a clear
vision of the ultimate goal of the project and understand its
relationships and dependencies with the project’s environment.

Conceptual skills refer to the ability to see the "big picture."

Project managers with good conceptual skills are well aware of
how various elements of the project environment or ecosystem
interrelate and influence one another. They understand
relationships between projects, the development organization,
the donor organization, the beneficiaries and its environment,
and how changes in one part of the environment affect the
project. Conceptual skills are necessary to appropriately deal
with project politics and to acquire adequate support from top
management.

Interpersonal Skills

Although technical expertise is important, project managers do not

need to be expert in the project’s technical area. In fact, it is better
that the project manager be a generalist rather than an expert. The
reason is that experts tend to be very narrow in their views. Experts
leading a project are less likely to consider any other view than their
own. The tendency is for experts to believe their solution is the right
one, and therefore the only choice. A generalist, on the other hand, is
far more open to the views and suggestions of the team members. On
balance, the results of projects led by a generalist tend to yield much
better deliverables than a comparable project led by an expert in one
technical area.

The most proficient project management skills in the world will not
compensate for a procedural blunder caused by not understanding the
company culture, policies, personalities, or politics. The project
manager negotiates with many people and needs to know their
personalities, needs, and desires. The more he knows about the
organization, the better equipped that manager is to maneuver around
pitfalls and get what is needed for the project. Every organization has
a unique culture and individual divisions within an organization often
have their own personalities. Understanding these cultures and
personalities can help a project manager be more successful.

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Interpersonal skills require understanding people, their attitudes, and

human dynamics. They represent the ability of a project manager to
work effectively as a project team leader and to build cooperative
effort with the project members and all other groups with which the
project team interacts. They are most critical for effective performance
in a project environment. Major interpersonal skills include:
communication, team building, coaching, motivating, training,
directing, persuading/influencing, negotiating, and supporting those
involved in the project.

The project manager must be sensible to the cultural differences when

dealing with diverse people and their opinions, values, and attitudes.
This is particularly true for the international projects that consist of the
people of diverse cultures. Good interpersonal abilities build trust and
confidence between members of the project team and help create
good relations and a good working environment. The important
interpersonal abilities required to handle projects are leadership;
communication, behavior and negotiation:

Leadership Skills

Leadership skills are essential for project managers because

project managers must influence the behavior of others. Project
managers require leadership skills for the simple reason that
they accomplish their work through people. Leadership is the
predominant contributor to the success of the project manager.
In small projects, good leadership can succeed even in a climate
of otherwise unskilled management. This skill gives the project
manager the ability to articulate a clear vision and provide
direction.

Communication Skills

The second most important skill, and the one in which they will
spend most of their time during the life of the project. Good
communications skills include verbal and non verbal
communications that enables a project manager to convey
project information in a way that it is received and understood
by all project stakeholders.

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This skill is important in any endeavor but is absolutely crucial in

project management. It has been estimated that project
managers spend 80 percent of their time just communicating:
with the project team, the customer, functional managers, and
upper management.

Communication is only successful when both the sender and the

receiver understand the same information as a result of the
communication. By successfully getting the message across, you
convey your thoughts and ideas effectively. When not successful,
the thoughts and ideas that are sent do not necessarily reflect
what is intended, causing a communications breakdown and
creating roadblocks that stand in the way of the project goals.

Behavioral Skills

Behavioral skills are the skills that give the project manager the
ability to work with people, and the ability to motivate people
involved in the project. Behavioral skills are also known as
people skills and these skills are needed in development projects
due to the large and varied number of people the project
interfaces with.

Behavioral or people skills, it’s the ability to build cooperation

between the project team, other project stakeholders, and the
project organization. These skills require an understanding of the
perceptions and attitudes, which help improve the morale of
individuals and groups.

Influence and Power of the Project Manager

Project managers are vested authority on the project by the

organization, the authority provides a level of influence on the project
and its members and the project manager can use to establish its
power.

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Power is the ability to influence the behavior of the project team to do

the things they will not normally do. A project manager can use five
different types of power1:

 Coercive power is a negative approach to power, it uses some form

of punishment or penalty treat to get people to do things. A project
manager can threaten to fire a team member if they don’t follow a
specific assignment or change a behavior. This approach is usually
used as a last resort when all other forms of influence have failed
and should be done in coordination with the organizations
management and never used as the only influence factor due to its
negative impact on the team’s motivation.

 Reward power involves the use of incentives such as money, status,

promotions, official recognition or special work assignments; these
are used as a reward to get some desired behavior or assignment.
The project manager can use these type of incentive based on the
resources available to the project and polices of the organization.

 Expert power is the use of personal expertise to influence the team

to follow directions. If the team recognizes the project manager as
a relevant expertise and has demonstrated this knowledge, then
they will be more likely follow the project manager’s directions or
suggestions on how work must be done.

 Legitimate power is based on authority, and uses the power vested

on the project manager by the organization to make decisions
without involving the project team. Excessive use of this type of
power can lead to project failure, the role and position plus the
support given by management to the project manager are part of
this part of type of power.

 Referent power is based on the personal charisma of the project

manager, it is based on the leadership qualities of the project
manager and how she has built a good level of trust with the team.
This is a type of power that must be earned before it is used and
it’s the best type of power to influence the team.

1
French, J. P. R. Jr., and Raven, B. (1960). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright and A. Zander (eds.),
Group dynamics (pp. 607-623). New York: Harper and Row.

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The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

Placing roles, responsibilities and skills together

Project managers are expected to accomplish project objectives by

using their knowledge, skills, and practical experience. During the
project management process, they have to use a combination of their
roles (integrator, communicator, and leader) and skills (management
and interpersonal).

All these roles and skills are equally important in managing a project
successfully. Successful project managers are expected to and must
play any one, or a combination of these roles, depending upon the
situation and the phase of the project life cycle. Project managers
should place relatively more emphasis on their role as leaders during
the initiation phase, as integrators during the planning phase, as
managers during the implementation phase, and as administrators
during the closing phase. However, it should be recognized that
although these roles have some of their own distinct characteristics,
there are also some characteristics that are common and overlapping.
Effective project managers should be able to tailor their roles to the
size, complexity, and environment of the project; cultural diversity of
the people and overall organizational culture; and the circumstances
surrounding the project management.

***

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 The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

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  The Project Management Roles and Responsibilities
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