LSC

Structure

Client and Project Team structure needs to be created at the outset of the project and develop as the project demands.

The Client team needs to respond to the complexity and scale of the project. A range of skills is required and even on small projects a number of different people need to be involved. The correct people may exist within the College organisation, or if they do not, can be employed for the duration of the project or retained as external consultants.

Members of college staff involved in the project may need additional training.

As the team develops, individuals within the team need to understand their role and responsibilities and a clear reporting structure needs to be in place to facilitate decision-making.

Client Management structure should:

  • Identify roles and responsibilities and name owners.
  • Allow roles and responsibilities to develop as the project develops.
  • Define thresholds for decision-making.
  • Set objectives for each role related to the project vision.
  • Define information needed to permit decision-making.
  • Be clear who is responsible for delivering the project brief.
  • Be clear who is responsible for project budget.
  • Set project milestones and agree sign off stages.
  • Ensure project risks are recognised, analysed and owned.
  • Ensure risks are regularly monitored.
  • Record activity and decisions.

Key roles are often identified as

  • Design Champion
  • Project Sponsor
  • Project Board
  • Project Manager

The Design Champion

The Champion need not be a ‘Design Professional’ but a member of the Client team who is enthusiastic about design and able to safeguard design quality for the client. The College Principal or College Board member can take the role, combined with other project activities. There needs to be close communication between the Design Champion and Project Sponsor. It is possible for one person to be both.

The design champion needs to be appointed at the early stages to engage in the project at the outset and ensure the project development responds to the vision and meets the aspiration for quality design.

The design champion role should include:

  • Promotion of high quality design.
  • Promoting the project vision.
  • Establish client body ambition for quality of design.
  • Ensure design ambition is clearly included in the project brief.
  • Definition and evaluation of quality.

Design quality is many faceted and covered elsewhere. Fundamentally the design champion needs to ensure the project design responds to the vision and ambition of the college.

The Project Sponsor

The project sponsor is the client body’s representative ensuring the client body fulfils its tasks and communicates within the client body, the project design team and other agencies.

It is important that the project sponsor is enabled, with authority and adequate time to carry out the role. The project sponsor needs to be a good communicator, politically astute, motivated and a good decision maker.

The project sponsor’s role should include:

  • Representing the client organisation.
  • Development of a management structure.
  • Setting priorities to meet the project vision.
  • Responsibility for project sign off.
  • Challenging information and ensuring its clarity.
  • Monitoring risk and ensuring ownership and removal.

The project sponsor role develops with the project itself. The sponsor must have a complete understanding of the project and its objectives.

The Project Board

The Client body may create a Project Board or Steering Group to support project leaders and sponsors in decision-making, monitor progress and report to the Governing Body. The project sponsor and the design champion need to be part of the Board as should key stakeholder representatives and users.

The college governing body may empower the Project Board to make decisions. This will enable progress to be made without waiting for a full Governors meeting.

The Project Board will be key to ensuring compliance with project objectives. The Board also has a role in promoting the project and building stakeholder engagement and ownership.

The Project Manager

A project manager should be engaged at the start of a project to assist the project sponsor in the development of the project management structure and the preparation of the project execution plan.

The project manager is fundamentally employed to look after the client’s interests and to manage the other professional team members on the design side. Clear lines of communication between the client, the client’s project manager and the design team need to be established and activities and responsibilities defined and agreed. Many project problems can be avoided through clear project management and understanding of roles and responsibilities.

The project manger’s key roles and responsibilities include:

  • Development, delivery and ownership of the project execution plan which would include:
    • Definition of the project organisation structure.
    • Definition and management of project communication protocols.
    • Definition and management of the project programme.
    • Definition of the project scope.
  • Ensuring information is available and passed both ways between client and the team.
  • Monitor progress.
  • Manage and monitor project budgets.
  • Manage change control.
  • Monitor team performance.

The project manager is therefore a key player in the Project Team, acting as manager and a link between the many parties involved in the project. It is important therefore for the client body to select the project manager with care and understanding of the expected role.