Risk roles and responsibilities

Risk management is not the sole responsibility of the project manager. To be effective, it must be viewed as a team effort that requires input from various parts of the organisation.

Cleary defining responsibilities will help each role participate more effectively in the risk management process.

Project sponsor: Holds the project budget and sets the tolerances that define if, and when, risks and issues must be escalated.

Risk manager: Helps to facilitate and support the risk management process and may also undertake an independent review of the team’s risk management activities.

Risk owner: Temporary role that will assume accountability for one or more of the identified risks.

Project manager: Overall accountability for the identification, analysis, and management of project risks. The project manager must also ensure that the team is adhering to the risk management process whether they are internal or external to the delivery organisation.

Subject matter expert (SME): Helps to identify and analyse risks for their specific domain. The SME may also assume the role of risk owner where appropriate to do so.

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