Roles & Responsibilities
Business ChangeA typical ‘Prince 2’ orientated changedelivery will have defined users and responsibilities.
Change Management Stakeholders
Business Sponsor (BS)
Number of incumbents: One
The Business Sponsor is a senior leadership member to which the Business Owner is responsible to. The Sponsor will grant consent to and support the communication of the Business Owners aspirations to the organisation and take an interest in the development and implementation of the resulting service or product. Service/Products to be delivered are done in the sponsor’s name.
The Business Sponsor is usually a Senior Executive member.
The Business Owner (BO)
Number of incumbents: One
The Business Owner is a Senior Manager responsible and accountable for the successful execution of a business function. The Business Owner usually receives ideas and strategies from their team and realises the merits of new requirements or changes in the business need. The Business Owner engages with Sponsors and the outcome is the approval of the new business need i.e., a Charter. They will appoint a Senior User to represent them in the development of those needs and construction of the solution design.
Since the Business Owner is accountable for the Benefits Realisation and that needs to be achieved with no ambiguity. There should only ever be one Business Owner. There may be other lateral business owners who are stakeholders, But only one responsible for the realisation of the benefits of the service to be delivered.
The Senior User (SU)
Number of incumbents: One or More
The Senior User is also the Subject Matter Expert and is responsible for the collation and presentation of the Business Requirements for the Products and Services to be delivered. These requirements are compiled usually with the help of 3rd party documentation specialist and presented to the Business Owner for approval.
The Senior User works closely with Service Delivery Teams and represents the business in all communications.
The Senior User is responsible for the Requirements Definition, the obtainment of its endorsements, the approval of the Solution Design, and performs as the Business’s representative in the Service Delivery process, and UAT Test Plans The Senior User is not responsible for the Service Delivery and is therefore not the Project Manager, a common misconception!
Business Users (Users)
Number of incumbents: Many
Users are people who use the Products and Services to execute their functions and enable the business to achieve its fiscal and operational benefits. They work closely with the Senior Users and help to develop the ideas and strategies that result in the new initiatives. They also participate in the testing processes that confirm that the solution devised and delivered achieved their aims and objectives.
Users can come from many business functions both internal and external.
The Testers (Testers)
Number of incumbents: Many
Testers are usually the day-to-day business function operators and the users of current IT technologies supporting those functions. They will perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT) against clearly defined Test Plans which after review, change and retest, contribute to the Acceptance of the product and Service.
Testers can come from many business functions both internal and external, Usually a small select community of advanced and experienced personnel.
Service Delivery Providers
Service Delivery Sponsor (SDS)
Number of incumbents: One
The Service Delivery Sponsor is a senior leadership member to which the Service Delivery Team is responsible to. Usually, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) or similar. The Sponsor will appoint delivery team players (via their Programme Management Office (PMO) and support the communication of the Service Delivery to the Business Sponsors and Business Owners. They take an interest in the development and implementation of the resulting service or product.
Services, Products created, and the Methodologies employed are delivered in the Sponsor’s name.
Business Analyst (BA)
Number of incumbents: One or More
Requirements Definition is an artform. Its aim is to articulate the business need in technological terms so that technologists can identify characteristics of the business need that requires special attention, for example, default acceptable technologies and standards. The resulting Business Requirements include not just those of the Business, i.e. what it needs to do, how it does it, who and from where it happens, but those of the IT service support as well, architecture, integration, software standards, cyber security etc. The end result is one or more formal artifacts approved by all stakeholders that the service delivery vendor will use to determine the solution design.
The Solution Design will consider tenders from multiple Suppliers and help the Business and IT stakeholder identify best fit solutions. When a Solution Design has been selected and the Business Case reaffirmed! A Project Manager can be appointed to manage the delivery.
Requirements Analysts are many, occasionally referred to as Business Analysts. Usually employed as part of Programme Management Office (PMO), occasionally they are competent members of the business community. They work very closely with the Senior Users and Project Managers.
Technical Architects (TA)
Number of incumbents: Many
Technical Architects are those people who are responsible for shaping the Solution Design so that the Service Owners and Service Supporters of the delivered solutions can support and sustain them. They cover all aspects of Information Technology and come with high levels of subject matter knowledge, experience and awareness of business rules and standards to be complied with.
They provide guidance, recommendations and the business rules to be complied with. Their engagement are usually defined as the ‘non-functional requirements’ of the solutions to be delivered.
These Architects are usually established agents within the Service Support community who have responsibilities for the day-to-day operational support of applications and infrastructure.
They are also, often members of Change Advisory Boards.
Cyber Security (CSA)
Number of incumbents: Many
Specialist Technical Architect supporting Cyber Security. They are responsible ensuring that the proposed solution and design meets operational safety criteria.
They provide guidance, recommendations and the business rules to be complied with. Their engagement contribute to the ‘non-functional-requirements’ of the solutions to be delivered.
These specialist architects are usually very experienced support agents with knowledge and experience of company technology strategy and have responsibilities for the day-to-day monitoring of systems exposure, their protection and incident management.
Vendors (Suppliers)
Number of incumbents: One or More
Vendors are the suppliers of the new Products and Services. They receive Business Requirements from clients and perform assessments of their ability to fulfil them, i.e., timescales, resources, tools etc. Vendors they may engage in further clarification workshops which may have costs. The outcome is the Vendors ability to present a Solution Design, this is their interpretation of the Product and Service to be delivered and the Product and Service that will be implemented and Used. It is important to consider that a solution offered may not be precisely product specified, however the outcome is the same or acceptable. Acceptance is usually defined by costs and focus upon core requirements. Upon acceptance by the client, this is then followed up by a ‘Statement of Works’ that identifies the cost and effort of the service delivery.
Vendors are either internal, i.e., IT support teams within the organisation with product/service development capability, or external, people who will develop a product whether founded on a base product or completely based upon supplied specifications, or as a commercial off the shelf product, e.g. MS Office etc.
The Vendor is not responsible for the realisation of the benefits of the Product/Service.
Governance (PMO)
Number of incumbents: Team
Service Delivery Governance is usually in the form of a Programme Management Office (PMO). They provide support to Businesses, IT Service Delivery and Business Senior Leadership. They provide project guidance, support and the service delivery business rules to be complied with. They will maintain libraries of configurations and lessons learnt from past service deliveries.
Project reporting conforms to PMO project reporting standards using templates to enable consistent measurable reporting across all current initiatives.
The PMO team has representation at all business and IT levels and also in all business development teams across a multi-organisation business.
Contract Support (CS)
Number of incumbents: One or More
Contract Management is a feature IT Governance where due diligence is applied to Supplier/Contractor engagement.
Project Contracts are typically ‘Non-disclosures Agreements’, ‘Master Service Agreements’ and ‘Statement of Works ’ defining the relationships and the rules of engagement in between the company and its contractors.
Conceived and executed by Business Analysts, Project Managers, Senior Users and Legal Department,
Signed off by the Contractors, Business Sponsor, Business and Service Owners.
Project Delivery, i.e., the Project Manager (PM)
Number of incumbents: One
There are many misconceptions about the Project Manager. They are not business leaders, specialists in requirements, solution design, build or technologies although service delivery experience often accords them with material subject matter knowledge and experience, to which they are not responsible for! They are also not accountable for the realisation of the benefits of the product and service delivered.
They are skilled agents in the execution of the process to deliver a product or service. They are meticulous at planning, co-ordinating activities, communicating instructions tasks and reports, analysing detail and identifying gaps and managing issues and risks arising. They are responsible for the successful delivery of the project.
Established IT Business Development functions usually employee them, typically, they are identified by successful delivery portfolios aligned to the business need and hired for the purpose.
A Project Manager is appointed by the Service Delivery Sponsor (or delegate) and reports as required to the Project Board. They may engage junior project managers to manage sub functions of a Service Delivery.
Service Delivery Agents (SDA)
Number of incumbents: One or More
These are the people usually come from the Service Support community and who will have responsibilities to provide the ongoing ‘Business As Usual’ support at the end of the Early Life Support Phase.
They work closely with the project team, particularly the Senior Users and Business Analysts to develop insight and appreciation of the service capabilities functions and issues arising from testing.
They will contribute to the collation of the Service Transition, User Manuals and other Support documentation.
These people are usually dedicated IT support team members providing support to similar systems.
They are skilled in triage, monitoring and problem resolution and are leaders in the Service Delivery process.
Test Agents (TA)
Number of incumbents: Many
Testers usually FAT, Factory Acceptance Tester are generally technology professionals with product development and requirements insight. They work to scripts based upon the defined functional, non-functional requirements and business rules. They prepare the environments for User Acceptance testing so that the Users time and contribution (since they also have a day job) is not wasted.
Testers can come from Suppliers, IT service delivery teams and the projects Senior Users. Usually, a small select community of technically knowledgeable and advanced users.
Service Support (SS)
Number of incumbents: Many
These are the people who will support the new or changed service. They will take on the ‘Business As Usual’ support responsibilities as defined in the Service Transition Documentation. They will receive induction during the Early Life Support phase with training and documentation. At the end of the ELS phase, they will take on the entire support as defined, ranging from Level 1 to Level 3.
These people are usually dedicated IT support teams, either internal or external (if outsourced). They are skilled in triage, monitoring and problem resolution. Using Service Support tools, incident history is generated and used to identify changes to future releases.