Project Team Roles and Responsibilities: Who Does What on a Project
Projects stall when nobody is sure who decides, who does the work and who signs off. This guide explains the core project roles, from sponsor and project manager to team members and stakeholders, and what each is accountable for. It also covers agile (Scrum) roles, a sample RACI chart, common role problems and a role description template you can copy.
Why clear roles matter
Most project problems trace back to people, not tools. When roles are fuzzy, decisions stall, work gets duplicated and some tasks fall through the cracks.
Clear roles do three things:
- They show who makes each decision.
- They show who does each piece of work.
- They give the team someone to turn to when things go wrong.
They also protect scope. If nobody has the authority to approve a change, extras slip in. See our guide to project scope creep.
The core roles at a glance
Names vary by organization and project size. On a small project one person may hold several roles. The responsibilities below still apply.
| Role | Main accountability | Typical responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| Project sponsor | Owns the business case and the project’s success. | Champions the project, secures funding and people, approves key deliverables and scope changes, removes obstacles. |
| Steering committee | Governs direction on larger projects. | Reviews progress, resolves escalated issues, makes major decisions. |
| Project manager | Delivers the project to plan. | Plans, schedules, tracks budget, manages risk and communication, leads the team. |
| Team members | Produce the deliverables. | Do the work, estimate effort, report progress and flag problems early. |
| Subject matter experts | Provide specialist knowledge. | Advise on requirements, design and quality; review work. |
| Business analyst | Defines needs and requirements. | Gathers and documents requirements, links the business and the delivery team. |
| Stakeholders and customers | Affected by or interested in the result. | Give input, review outputs, accept deliverables. |
| Project management office (PMO) | Standards and support across projects. | Provides methods, templates, tools and reporting. |
The project sponsor
The sponsor is the senior person who stands behind the project. One university project office describes the sponsor as the highest-level change leader, accountable for the solution’s success.
Typical sponsor responsibilities include:
- Confirming the business need is valid and documented in the business case.
- Committing budget and people.
- Approving key deliverables, such as the charter, stage gates and final sign-off.
- Making sure changes are properly approved.
- Resolving issues and removing obstacles beyond the project manager’s control.
- Obtaining commitment from senior leadership.
A PMI conference paper on sponsorship adds two practical points. Sponsors should provide leadership and support without acting as a “super project manager.” And the project manager is responsible for building the working relationship, including agreeing how often to meet.
That paper suggests regular face-to-face check-ins of at least 30 minutes, ideally weekly on most projects.
The project manager
The project manager is accountable for delivering the project within its scope, schedule and budget. See how these three trade off in our guide to the iron triangle.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists these typical duties for project management specialists:
- Communicate with clients to determine requirements and objectives.
- Develop project plans covering objectives, funding, schedules and staff.
- Select vendors or consultants.
- Assign duties to project staff.
- Monitor costs, milestones and deliverables.
- Propose, review and approve changes to project plans.
- Produce and distribute project documents.
For this group, BLS reports median pay of $102,320 in May 2025 and projected employment growth of 7 percent from 2025 to 2035. A bachelor’s degree is the typical entry education, and certification may be beneficial but is not always required.
Technical skill is only half the job. Strong soft skills and sound decisiveness matter just as much. To explore the career, see project manager jobs and the advantages of being a project manager.
Team members and specialists
Team members do the work that creates the deliverables. Their mix of skills depends on the project: developers and designers, engineers, writers, analysts, trainers.
Good team members:
- Give honest estimates.
- Report problems early, while they are still small.
- Work from agreed requirements, not private ideas of what is needed.
- Ask before adding extras.
Subject matter experts (SMEs) advise rather than build. They are often borrowed from other departments, so agree their time commitment up front.
A business analyst turns business needs into clear requirements. Our guide to the business analyst job description explains the role in more detail. Good requirements are the foundation of everything else; see requirements management.
Stakeholders, steering committees and the PMO
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are anyone affected by the project or able to influence it: customers, users, executives, suppliers, regulators and the team itself.
Missing a stakeholder early is a common cause of late changes. Identify them in the planning stage and keep the list current.
Steering committee
On larger or higher-risk projects, a steering committee of senior leaders oversees direction. It reviews progress, resolves escalated issues and makes major decisions. In the PMI paper cited above, the sponsor is accountable to the steering committee.
Project management office (PMO)
A PMO sets standards and provides support across many projects: methods, templates, tools, training and reporting. Some PMOs only advise. Others directly control projects. Ask which model your organization uses.
Roles in agile and Scrum teams
Agile teams use different role names. The Scrum Guide defines a Scrum Team as one Scrum Master, one Product Owner and Developers. It has no sub-teams or hierarchies, and the team is typically 10 or fewer people.
| Scrum role | Accountable for |
|---|---|
| Product Owner | Maximizing the value of the product. Developing and communicating the Product Goal, creating and ordering Product Backlog items. One person, not a committee. |
| Scrum Master | Establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Coaching the team, removing impediments, supporting the Product Owner and helping the organization adopt Scrum. |
| Developers | Creating a usable Increment each Sprint. Building the Sprint plan, following the Definition of Done and adjusting daily toward the Sprint Goal. |
Notice there is no “project manager” in Scrum. Much of that work is shared between the Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developers. In many organizations a project manager still exists alongside agile teams, for example to coordinate across several teams or manage budgets and contracts.
For why agile is spreading, read why agile project management is growing.
Defining roles on your project
The simplest tool is a RACI chart. It assigns each task one of four letters per role:
- Responsible: does the work.
- Accountable: owns the outcome and has the final say. Aim for exactly one per task.
- Consulted: gives input before decisions.
- Informed: told after decisions.
Here is a short example. Adapt it to your own project.
| Task | Sponsor | Project manager | Team | Business analyst | Stakeholders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approve the project charter | A | R | I | C | C |
| Write the requirements | I | A | C | R | C |
| Build the deliverables | I | A | R | C | I |
| Approve a scope change | A | R | I | C | C |
| Accept the final deliverable | A | R | C | C | C |
Our dedicated guide to the responsibility assignment matrix goes further.
Five steps to set roles
- List the work. Start from deliverables and key decisions.
- List the roles. Name actual people where you can.
- Fill in a RACI chart and check that every task has exactly one A.
- Review it with the team and sponsor. Fix disagreements now, not mid-project.
- Revisit it at each phase of the project lifecycle, as people and work change.
Common role problems and fixes
| Problem | How it shows up | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Absent sponsor | Decisions wait for weeks. Priorities flip. | Agree a regular check-in and a response time up front. Escalate early. |
| Sponsor acting as project manager | The team gets instructions from two people. | Clarify who directs the work. The sponsor supports, the project manager leads. |
| No one owns decisions | Everyone is consulted and no one decides. | Name one accountable person per decision in the RACI chart. |
| Overloaded experts | Reviews are late. Quality slips. | Agree SME time commitments in writing with their managers. |
| Overlapping roles | Two people do the same job, or neither does. | Write short role descriptions and review them together. |
| Missing stakeholders | Late requests from people nobody consulted. | Run a stakeholder identification step during planning. |
| Everyone is a project manager | Team members self-assign extras. | Route all change through change control and the project manager. |
A role description template
Copy this into your project plan for each role.
[Role name], [Project name]
Person: [name] · Reports to: [name or role] · Time commitment: [hours per week]
Purpose. [One sentence on why this role exists on this project.]
Responsible for:
- [Main responsibility 1]
- [Main responsibility 2]
- [Main responsibility 3]
Decides: [Decisions this person can make alone.]
Must be consulted on: [Decisions made by others where this role gives input.]
Escalates to: [Who, and for what kinds of issues.]
Success looks like: [How you will know the role is working.]
Frequently asked questions
What are the main roles on a project team?
The core roles are the project sponsor, project manager, team members, subject matter experts and stakeholders. Larger projects add a steering committee, business analyst and a PMO.
What is the difference between a project sponsor and a project manager?
The sponsor owns the business case and the success of the project, provides resources and approves key decisions. The project manager plans and delivers the work day to day.
What does a project manager do?
BLS lists duties such as determining project requirements, developing plans, assigning duties, monitoring costs and milestones and reviewing changes to the plan.
What is a RACI chart?
A RACI chart assigns each task a Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed role for every person or group. It shows who does the work and who decides.
Is there a project manager in Scrum?
The Scrum Guide defines only the Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developers. Many organizations still keep project managers alongside Scrum teams for coordination across teams, budgets and contracts.
How many people should be on a project team?
It depends on the project. For a Scrum Team, the Scrum Guide says typically 10 or fewer. Larger projects usually split into several teams.
Who approves scope changes?
This should be agreed up front. Often the sponsor or a change board approves changes, while the project manager assesses and logs them.
Compare project management certificate programs side by side.