Define the Roles and Responsibilities of the Project Team
Winners practice till they get it right, Champions practice till they can’t get it wrong.
—Anonymous
Once you have a list of projects prioritized, it is important that you develop a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the individuals on the project team. This instills common language among the facilitators and also between the facilitators and the teams across the organization. The following role titles are commonly associated with a project team (Figure 15.1),
Sponsor: Responsible for approving the project and its resources
Champion: Responsible for results and assigning resources
Project lead: Responsible for coordinating the project from start to finish
Process owner: Subject matter expert (SME) on the process who provides information on best practices and can also assume the role of a project lead
Team member: Responsible for contributing ideas and implementing the solution
Facilitator: Responsible for methodology
While the above titles are standard practice in most organizations implementing Lean Six Sigma, the description of the roles and responsibilities within those tiles varies depending on the size and structure of the organization. In smaller organizations, often the roles overlap among sponsor, champion, and process owner. Even though the literature defines the responsibility of the process owner as the one who is fully responsible for the process performance, process maturity, process improvements, and performance of the resources in the process, it is recommended that the role of process owner be kept distinct from sponsor or champion.
Given below is an example of roles and responsibilities of the project team at Hospital Heal mapped onto the life cycle of a project (Table 15.1). Create a similar table of roles and responsibilities for implementing projects in your organization.
Sensei Gyaan: If you have to choose between a process owner with high technical SME but low business SME and one with a high business SME but low technical SME, select the one with a high technical SME. Note that process owners are responsible for the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. To create effectiveness and efficiency in a process does not require the ability to manage the business covered by the process.