2. The Project Executive

The Project Executive

The Project’s Accountable Executive is the person who has the greatest influence on the success or failure of the project.

This module covers:

      1. The role and responsibilities of the Accountable Executive

     2. The Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the Accountable Executive

     3. A case story involving an Accountable Executive

     4. Enabling the Accountable Executive in her / his role

     5. Assessing the performance of the Accountable Executive in her / his role

The Critical Success Factors for The Accountable Executive

1. Listen, trust, and respect. The Accountable Executive should listen, trust, and respect the project team members. After all they are the skilled and experienced professionals responsible for successfully delivering the project. To be blunt, if the Accountable Executive does not trust and respect her / his team, they should select another team whom they do trust and respect.

2. Do not make excessive demands on the project. Business imperatives sometimes dictate constraints such as a project schedule, budget , or scope that are simply not achievable. The Accountable Executive should be sensitive to the assessment of the Project Leadership Team and not impose excessive demands that will place great strains on the project.

3. Be engaged. The Accountable Executive may often have a lot on her / his plate, the result being that she / he cannot dedicate the required time and energy to the project. When that is the case the Accountable Executive should either clear her / his plate, or decline the role of the project executive.

4. Advocate with senior stakeholders. The success of any project  requires the active support of other senior stakeholders in the organization. It is the responsibility of the Accountable Executive to advocate with her / his fellow executives to obtain their support for the project.

5. Help control scope. It is only natural that senior stakeholders will push for scope additions, including requirements which they had failed to conceive of at the start of the project. The Accountable Executive should defend the scope of the project and push back on any scope changes that may put the project at risk. 

6. Help resolve issues. Any project of significant impact on the company will invariably require executive-level decisions and issues resolution. It is the Accountable Executive’s responsibility to provide the necessary leadership, make her / his decisions wisely and expeditiously, and resolve the executive-level project issues without delay. 

7. Have experience. The Accountable Executive should have the experience in leading projects of a similar size and complexity of the project at hand. If she / he does not have this experience, they should reach out to an Executive Mentor or other  experienced senior executives to help then bridge the gap in their experience.

In this module you will learn about:

1.   The role and responsibilities of the Accountable Executive, why they are important to the success of the project, and how the she / he can best discharge these responsibilities.

2. The Critical Success Factors that will indicate that the Accountable Executive is indeed meeting her / his project  responsibilities in ways that are commensurate with the project’s size and complexity.

3.  A case story to illustrate the concepts at hand.

4.   The actions that the Project Manager, his leadership team, and other senior stakeholders should take to help the Accountable Executive succeed in her / his job.

5.   An approach for assessing the performance of the Accountable Executive on the project, criteria for assessing the risks associated with her / his actions and inactions, and examples to illustrate these risks.