Senior Management

Senior management is a term used for that part of an organisation that ”owns” and governs the project.

Senior management is a permanent organisation, normally a pre-existing management team that decides which projects to commission. They will be responsible for realizing the business objectives of the project, once it has been carried out.

Senior Management:

• Has a multi-project coordinating function and decides which projects should be started.
• Ensures that the project’s business objectives are achieved and followed up.
• Prioritizes between projects and makes sure that there will be resources available to run those projects.

Senior management could be a management team, a portfolio management team or a Project Management Office (PMO).
The project sponsor is often the link between senior management and the project.

In large organisations, avoid making the highest management responsible for too many projects. Rather, strive to establish the senior management responsibility at the lowest possible level. However, for cross-functional, high-risk projects responsibility will remain with the highest management body.