Project board

The project board is the highest level of management inside the project. The board has ultimate responsibility for the project and delegates its daily management to the project manager while they keep an eye on the manager through project assurance.

Members of the board

The project board consists of the following roles:

• Project executive
• Senior user(s)
• Senior supplier(s)

These roles are defined based on the defined roles and responsibilities principle and the organization practice to cover the three main stakeholder interests: business, user, and supplier.

Decision making

The project board is not democratic, but the final decision in most cases belongs to the project executive, especially the more important ones. In practice, the senior users and senior suppliers are there primarily to provide the project executive with information they need for the important decisions.

Responsibilities

The project board is responsible for creating the right environment for the project’s success, including:

• Ensuring there are sufficient funds, people, and resources to meet project objectives
• Providing project assurance for the project’s performance and products, separate from the project manager
• Aligning the project with business strategy and objectives through the business case
• Governing the project, defining the rules and constraints.
• Establishing tolerances and change budgets to support effective decision-making
• Prioritizing the safety and well-being of the project team
• Monitoring social cohesion within the project ecosystem
• Managing relationships (interface) between the organizational and project ecosystems

Merging roles

In smaller, less complex projects, the project executive role can be combined with either the senior user or senior supplier role. A strong project board needs the right level of authority and credibility, depending on the size and complexity of the project.

The project executive role must not be combined with the project manager role because that would create a conflict of interest and also mixes responsibilities that are difficult for one person to manage at the same time.

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Written by Frank Turley.

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