Project Roles & Resource Management

Student M asked us:

I have few doubts. Could you please clarify.
1. difference between customer / client / sponsor
2. Role of customer in appointing pm (i read in one ofthe chapters, why customer should be involved inappointing PM)
3. difference between resource levellling & smoothing

Question 1

Definitions may vary by author and also industry context (how the terms are applied). It can get a bit fuzzy.

We use those of the APM's Body of Knowledge.

Client is normally applied to an external customer in a contractual situation, the APM BoK says:

"The party to a contract who commissions work and pays for it on completion."

However, the term 'client' is often used in a more generic sense to refer to an internal body that may have commissioned a project, for example, where one department in an organisation is undertaking a project with deliverables to be used by another department. The department undertaking the project may refer to the benificiary department as 'the client' (or sometimes, 'the customer').

The sponsor is an active senior management role, and is someone with whom the project manager should have continuous dialogue. The APM BoK on the sponsor:

"Individual or body for whom the project is undertaken and who is the primary risk taker. The sponsor owns the business case and is ultimately responsible for the project and for delivering the benefits."

Customer is a more generic term which is commonly applied to whoever pays for the project deliverables, this may be an external client or a consumer mass market (e.g. if the project is a new product development).

A customer may also be another internal department (see previous 'client' point).

On our course we argue that there are a range of different stakeholders who need to be treated as 'customers' (i.e. their needs have to be met) - in order for the project to be successful.

Question 2

The way in which a PM is appointed will generally depend on an organisation's 'custom and practice'. Sometimes this may fall to the sponsor, but not always. No 'one' right way on this.

Question 3

Resource levelling is where tasks are re-scheduled to overcome a resource constraint, so that the work does not exceed the resources available. Smoothing is an extension of this - where tasks are re-scheduled to achieve the most even resource loading (smoothing out peaks and troughs) over the project timeframe. A project manager might, for example, smooth the resources on the project to optimise resource usage efficiency - even if there is no particular resource constraint.