Key Roles
MSP
In MSP methodology roles and responsibilities are considered in each of the major sections.
The size of your Programme Team and the exact roles within it will depend on the scope and scale of the activities. It will also of course depend on the amount of resource available although the latter should necessarily be commensurate with the former. No matter whether the roles are full-time appointments, secondments or a 'done on top of normal duties' (only recommended for the smallest of projects or programmes), formal appointments will secure some commitment to the post, which is vital if the programme is going to have any chance of success.
The formal appointments process will include selection and recruitment, agreement of roles and responsibilities, job descriptions and person specifications of which records should be kept for the Programme files and to aid in future programmes.
Here we highlight a few key roles that should exist within any Programme Team - you can also download a Roles and Responsibilities template (provided here with examples of typical Programme roles).
Programme Sponsor/Senior Responsible Owner (SRO)
This will normally be the member of the senior management team who has responsibility for the strategic aim the programme is supporting. The terminology is cumbersome with Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) being the preferred term in many formal methodologies whilst Programme Sponsor is perhaps more common in the sector. For the sake of convenience we will use the abbreviation SRO.
The appointment of the SRO can be as formal or informal as fits with the organisation's culture. The important point is that the procedure, however informal, should secure some commitment to hands-on involvement by the SRO (and any other members of a Programme Sponsoring Board). The SRO will need strong leadership skills and the authority to make resources available and to make decisions affecting all of the organisational departments and teams necessary to bring about the desired change.
Once appointed the SRO will then (either personally or by delegation) develop the Programme Brief. This document takes as its starting point the initial idea or mandate and will form the basis for a decision on whether to go ahead (and commit what could be major resource) or not.
The SRO is ultimately responsible for the Programme and delivery of benefits and therefore should take appropriate action where necessary to ensure success. The SRO needs to ensure that the Business Case continues to be sound as external and internal influences, drivers and barriers change during the course of the programme.
The SRO is ultimately responsible for ensuring that authorised levels of expenditure are available to the Programme Manager as necessary. View the section 'Managing Your Portfolio' in the Portfolio Management infoKit for more about the role of the SRO.
Programme Manager
The Programme Manager is responsible to the SRO for managing the delivery of the change needed to achieve the strategic objective. This means managing a range of projects in a coherent way so that the sum of the benefits is greater than the sum of the component parts.
The Programme Manager is likely to be an experienced Project Manager and will also require skills in negotiation and change management.
As with project management you will find that different skills are needed at different times in the activity lifecycle. The concept of having different managers at different times in a project/programme is relatively well established in industry but rare in the education sector. Changing managers is not a sign of failure if you have identified in advance that you need different skills and have planned to appoint different people at different stages.
The Benefits Manager
Sometimes called the Business Change Manager, the Benefits Manager has a remit to ensure that the benefits identified by the SRO are delivered by the programme. The Benefits Manager must be familiar with the existing business processes of the area of the organisation affected by the programme and therefore a large programme affecting several areas, may require several Benefits Managers.
The Benefits Manager needs to be in post from an early stage in order to ensure that measurements are taken at the start of the programme, the 'Before-Change' state to enable comparison once the 'After-Change' state is reached. Once a new way of working is introduced, it is impossible to go back to the old way to take measurements for comparison. For more information see the Process Review infoKit.
The Benefits Manager will also find much of interest in the Change Management infoKit.
Programme Board
The SRO is unlikely to work in isolation to govern the programmes within their portfolio. Unless your organisation is very small the SRO is likely to chair a Programme Board which will include, as a minimum, the Programme Manager and Business Change or Benefits Manager(s).
The Board should meet at key decision points where it may be necessary to take crucial decisions regarding the continuity of the programme. In addition the SRO, perhaps at the behest of other board members or the Programme Manager may call an extraordinary meeting of the Board should any critical issues arise.
The Board exists to consider progress, risks and issues at a strategic level with an emphasis on monitoring realisation of the benefits identified within the Benefits Profile. Operational management is the domain of the Programme Manager whilst management of the transitional change, including take-up and embedding of any new processes or systems, is the domain of the Benefits Manager(s).
The Board needs to ensure that any issues or recommendations are addressed before authorising continuation of the programme from one stage to another.
The Board and hence the SRO will therefore be involved in:
Championing the Project/Programme and communicating to stakeholders
Managing the Risks associated with the activities
Resolving Issues escalated by the Project/Programme Manager
Managing Changes that could take the Project/Programme outside agreed Tolerance Limits
Reviewing the Business Case for the Project/Programme at key stage boundaries
The diagram below depicts the functions of the key members of the Programme Board and their external links:
