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CLASSIFICATIONS OF ROLE-BASED GROUPS 125

Acknowledging this, let’s proceed to explore the objectives, goals, and needs of
various disciplines within the enterprise, with attention to the issues associated
with the management of project portfolios and the resources utilized to support
these projects.

Stakeholders

If we’re going to talk about roles, then we have to talk about stakeholders.
First, why are stakeholders so important? It is because the community that is
interested in your project, or contributes to your project, or can make or break
your project, is larger than you think. Who are these stakeholders? They are
people who will have an impact on project success. They are project champi-
ons, sponsors, and owners. They are the miscellaneous senior managers, whose
measurements (and stock bonuses) are dependent on project success. They are
the project participants, including suppliers and clients. They are ancillary
groups such as end users, regulatory agencies, and the public. And, of course,
they include all the people directly involved in defining, planning, and execut-
ing the project.

If we were to look at the traditional view of project success, we might say that
it was to accomplish all schedule, budget, and technical objectives, as planned. An
alternate view of project success, however, is accomplishing the goals of everyone
who has a stake in the project.

From a strategic point of view, we have to consider who they are; what they
want; how they can impact success; and how they can be satisfied. That is because
whether your project has been successful will depend, at least in part, on the per-
ceptions of the stakeholders of what was actually accomplished.

Each stakeholder has a specific role in one or more aspects of the enterprise.
These might include: the individual project, the portfolio of projects, the human
resources supporting the projects, the capital assets involved in the portfolio, the
technical results, the long-term growth or survival of the enterprise, for a few ex-
amples. Because these roles differ (as well as the definition of success), the way
that these stakeholders interact with the project management system will likewise
differ. What stakeholders put into the system and what they need and expect out
of the system is unique to their role. For the project management system to work
requires that each role be addressed and supported.

Classifications of Role-based Groups

For the purpose of this chapter on Role-based Needs for Managing Resources in a
Project-driven Organization, we’ll create a group of role sets, based on the general