It involves identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships. The assignment can be internal or they may come from outside. Internal groups are usually composed of specific functional departments, such as IT, engineering, marketing, or account. HR is an important area because people are the project’s most valuable resource.

Inputs

• Project interfaces: organizational interfaces – formal and information report relationships among different organizational units; Technical interfaces: formal and informal reporting relationships among technical disciplines; formal and information reporting relationship among different individual working on the project

• Staffing requirements: define skills required of individuals or groups and the desired time frame within which they’ll be needed.

• Constraints: factors such as organizational structure, collective bargaining agreements with unions or other employee group, preferences of the project team, expected staff assignments.

Tools and techniques

• Templates – help to define roles and responsibilities or reporting relationships

• HR practices – help to plan the structure of project team

• Organizational theory – help to structure the organization (see other descriptions)

• Stakeholder analysis – help to ensure stakeholders’ needs and expectations are met.

Outputs

• Role and responsibility assignments: assignment of roles and responsibilities

• Staffing management plan: describe when and how HR will join and leave the project team. Resource histograms that show resource requirements, their usage, and availability along a timeline are often incorporated into the staff management plan. It is part of the project plan.

• Organization chart: displays the reporting relationships in a graphic format.

• Supporting details: includes organizational impact, job descriptions, training needs.