Openness and transparency is important in a distributed organisation such as NeIC. Using a project model makes it clear:

Who does what?
Who makes sure things get done?
Whom should I tell about what?

This page describes the roles in the NeIC project organization, and their responsibilities and authorities.

Practical project steering

NeIC uses the Tieto PPS project management model, with some adaptions.

Partner

In NeIC projects, the organizations signing the collaboration agreement are seen as #orderers, but can also be #resource owners. Partners must be Nordic organizations with national significance.

Orderer

Responsibility:

To define and take responsibility for the expected benefits.
To evaluate profitability and finance the production of a result that contributes to the expected benefit.
To reach a possible agreement.
To handle the consequences within the orderer’s organisation.
To measure, evaluate and report the status the benefit realisation.

Authority:

To produce a request for tender and reach an agreement.
To manage possible business relationships.
To own, administer, maintain and further develop the project’s result.

Project owner

Abbreviation: PO. NeIC is project owner in all NeIC projects.

Responsibility:

To evaluate and be responsible for the benefit to the supplier’s organisation.
To secure the financing of a project.
To initiate and secure a project that corresponds to the orderer’s expectations.
To draw up a possible agreement.
To evaluate and take care of consequences within the supplier’s organisation.
To evaluate experiences from the project.

Authority:

To produce the project directive.
To produce the tender and reach an agreement.
To start the project.
To manage possible business relationships.

Resource owner

Employing institution for project personnel, contracted to the project in service contracts.

Responsibility:

To secure agreed availability for project members.
To secure agreed skills for project members.
To secure agreed availability and quality for other resource categories and work processes.
To support project members.
To take care of effects of the project on their own organisation.

Authority:

To propose/assign project members.
To approve assignment descriptions.

Steering group

Abbreviation: SG. Members are generally appointed by the partners. The NeIC representative is generally the chairperson, and the #project manager is generally the secretary to the steering group.

Responsibility:

To steer the project and, by making decisions at DP1-DP8, secure a successful project.
To ensure that the project’s result will contribute to the benefits.
To supply the needed resources.
To support the project management and ensure that it has full control and that the project will achieve its objective.
To stay continuously informed about the project’s status (by means of steering group meetings, status reports, risk analyses and project analyses).
To make decisions about changes to the project.

Authority:

To appoint the project management and the analysis team.
To approve and change:
- the project plan.
- the requirement description.
To initiate project analyses.
To approve the delivery and transfer.
To conclude the project.

Project manager

Abbreviation: PM or PL. Also often called project leader, to emphasize the leadership skills that are required to carry out this role in a distributed organization. The project manager is generally appointed by NeIC. NeIC projects generally do not have a #technical project manager, #project administrator or #sub-project managers, in which case the responsibilities and authorities associated with these roles are assumed by the project manager.

Responsibility:

To carry out the project and reach its result according to the requirement and solution descriptions and within the framework of the project directive and project plan.
To ensure that the organisation and working method are suitable, documented and clear.
To identify and introduce improvements to the working method.
To report on the project status.
To propose changes to the project commitment.
To agree on resources for the project.

Authority:

To control allocated resources.
To change the project organisation if required.
To initiate project analyses.
To negotiate with the orderer, when this authority has been delegated by the project owner.

Technical Project Manager

Abbreviation: TPM. Generally not used in NeIC projects, as the #project manager generally takes also this role.

Responsibility:

To plan, manage, monitor and control the production work.
To ensure the use of agreed working methods and tools.
To develop, administer and be economical with resources.
To approve incoming deliveries.
Ensure that all results have the agreed quality so that the recipient organisation can
- use them.
- take over responsibility.

Authority:

To make decisions about the result’s functional characteristics - see also reference group.
To make decisions about technical solutions.
To use and control the production resources provided by the project manager.
Organise experience seminars.
To reject incoming deliveries that deviate from the agreed content and quality.

Project Administrator

Abbreviation: PA. Generally not used in NeIC projects, as the #project manager generally takes also this role.

Responsibility:

To put together and structure schedules based on input from the project manager and project staff.
To put together and report the project status with regard to the result, timetable and budget.
To put together and structure the action list.
To signal deviations to the PM/TPM.
To monitor the project’s dependencies.
To establish and maintain the project library.

Authority:

Together with the project staff and others involved, to propose and introduce routines (including the technical environment) for:
- planning and monitoring.
- information distribution.
- risk management.
- change management.
To collect information for planning and monitoring the project.
To add information to and borrow from the project library.

Analysis group

NeIC projects generally do not have an analysis group, but projects are continually assessed by the NeIC executive team and the strategic stakeholder fora, such as the Category:GEN provider forum, or the BMS advisory forum.

Responsibility:

To carry out project analyses in the agreed manner.
To identify and document characteristics/variations in the result and the working methods.
To judge whether the organisation and working methods are suitable for the project.
To report the result and the possibility of success to the steering group, the project manager and the base organisation where necessary.
To handle sensitive information with discretion and in accordance with applicable security regulations.

Authority:

To carry out project analyses, having access to:
- project management.
- key personnel.
- the result library.
To determine whether the project’s working methods lead to the realisation of the project idea and project objective.
To suggest to those responsible possible improvements in working methods.

Reference group

Abbreviation: RG. Reference groups are composed of representatives for users and for administration/maintenance, to ensure that the results are usable, and maintainable. Reference groups can be either advisory or decision making.

Advisory, users

The role of a user representative in an advisory reference group.

Responsibility:

To provide advice on the result’s functional content and future use.
To successively ensure the acceptability of the result within the user organisation.

Authority:

To provide advice and proposals concerning the result’s design within the framework of the requirement description.

Advisory, administration/maintenance

The role of a representative for administration/maintenance in an advisory reference group.

Responsibility:

To give advice concerning the result’s internal design and construction.
To successively ensure the acceptability of the result within the maintenance organisation.

Authority:

To provide advice and proposals concerning the result’s internal design and construction within the framework of the applicable methods and tools.

Decision making, users

The role of a user representative in a decision making reference group.

Responsibility:

To take responsibility for the result’s functional content and future use.
To successively ensure the acceptability of the result within the user organisation.

Authority:

To determine the result’s functional design.

Decision making, administration/maintenance

The role of a representative for administration/maintenance in a decision making reference group.

Responsibility:

To take responsibility for the result’s internal design and construction.
To successively ensure the acceptability of the result within the maintenance organisation.

Authority:

To determine the result’s internal design and construction.

Sub-project manager

Abbreviation: SPM. Generally not used in NeIC projects, as the #project manager generally takes also this role.

Responsibility and authority

Has the same principles as for the project manager, but:

is limited to a part of the result.
has the exclusive right to make decisions on the result’s function/characteristics.

Project member

Also called project personnel, project team, working group, or production personnel. This group produces the majority of the project results. In NeIC projects, this group is generally composed of technical experts.

Responsibility:

Take personal responsibility for own committments.
Clarify the result of own committments i.e:
- what is requested.
- what ”completed” means.
For own committments, understand
- why it is requested.
- who is requesting it.
- who will use it.
Inform of any delays in good time.
Search for and propose possibilities or improve production.

Authority:

Reach agreement with the assignor on the objectives, resource requirements and uncertainties of the personal commitment.
Have the assigned resources at one’s disposal.

Project organization

Contents

Practical project steering

Partner

Orderer

Project owner

Resource owner

Steering group

Project manager

Technical Project Manager

Project Administrator

Analysis group

Reference group

Advisory, users

Advisory, administration/maintenance

Decision making, users

Decision making, administration/maintenance

Sub-project manager

Responsibility and authority

Project member

See also

Navigation menu

Project organization

Practical project steering

Partner

Orderer

Project owner

Resource owner

Steering group

Project manager

Technical Project Manager

Project Administrator

Analysis group

Reference group

Advisory, users

Advisory, administration/maintenance

Decision making, users

Decision making, administration/maintenance

Sub-project manager

Responsibility and authority

Project member

See also

Navigation menu

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