Business Owner

A business owner generally has day-to-day responsibility for running a func­ tion or a department; for example, a business owner might be the director of the clinical laboratories. A project may need the involvement of several busi­ ness owners. For example, the success of a new patient accounting system may depend on processes that occur during registration and scheduling (and hence the director of outpatient clinics and the director of the admitting department will both be business owners) and may also depend on adequate physician documentation of the care provided (and hence the administrator of the medical group will be another business owner).

Business owners often work on the project team. Among their several responsibilities are the following:

• Representing their department or function at steering committee and project team meetings

• Securing and coordinating necessary business and departmental resources

• Removing business obstacles to meeting the project timeline and producing deliverables, as appropriate

• Working jointly with the project manager on several tasks (as described in the next section)

Project Manager

The project manager does just that—manages the project. He or she is the person who provides the day-to-day direction setting, conflict resolution, and communication needed by the project team. The project manager may be an IT staffer or a person in the business, or function, benefiting from the project. Among their several responsibilities, project managers accomplish the following:

• Identify and obtain needed resources.

• Deliver the project on time, on budget, and according to specifi cation.

• Communicate progress to sponsors, stakeholders, and team members.

• Ensure that diligent risk monitoring is in place and appropriate risk mitigation plans have been developed.

• Identify and manage the resolution of issues and problems.

• Maintain the project plan.

• Manage project scope.