Project Participants in Project Management

Project Participant is the legal entity that participates in a

project and takes over all respective tasks and responsibilities.
Project participant is a party involved, which has indicated to
be a project participant, or a private and/or public entity
authorized by a party involved to participate in a project
activity
The project participants consist of all the individuals entities
who either :

- Work on the project directly, such as team members,

consultants, contractors, and the sub-contractors.
- Influence the project directly such as the internal project
stakeholders (including functional managers and executives),
the project sponsor, and the customer/client.

The difference between project stakeholders and project

participants is that the former include the individuals/entities
who have indirectly a stake in the success of the project (such
as the end users) while the latter doesn't.

Project Participants are those entities within or outside

an organization which:-
1. sponsor a project, or
2. have an interest or a gain upon a successful completion of
a project;
 3. may have a positive or negative influence in the project
completion.

Project participants are anyone who has an interest in the

project. Project stakeholders are individuals and organizations
that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may
be affected as a result of project execution or project
completion. They may also exert influence over the project’s
objectives and outcomes. The project management team must
identify the stakeholders, determine their requirements and
expectations, and, to the extent possible, manage their influence
in relation to the requirements to ensure a successful project.

The following are examples of project participants:

 Project leader
 Project team members
 Upper management
 Project customer
 Resource Managers
 Line Managers
 Product user group
 Project testers

There are narrower views of the term participants, focusing on

the influencers and decision makers of a business or
technological change or they are managers who have the
organizational authority to allocate resources (people, money,
services) and set priorities for their own organizations in
support of a change. They are the people who make or break a
change.

Rights of project participants

Project participants have the following rights-
1. The right to mark information sent to
2. The right to be heard by the senior authority
3. The right to select, enter into a contract with, and
subsequently communicate with the performing validation,
and performing verification and certification:
4. The right to receive notification of a review of registration
and its result:
Adding a new project participant
It is in accordance with the project which is being
undertaken
Withdrawal of a project participant
It is in accordance with the project which is being
undertaken

How to Identify Participants in Project Management

As a project manager responsible for completing projects
successfully and within scope, it’s imperative that you know the
participants. Because participants require to understand the
specifications of a project and to meet their expectations,
performing an analysis of who they are is essential. Be aware
that it’s a time-consuming process, and one in which you want
to make sure no important stakeholder is missed.
The imp factor that should be kept in mind while deciding for
project participants are as -
1. Review the Project Charter
2. Conduct Your Stakeholder Analysis
3. Research More Documents (Contract documents,
Organizational process assets, Enterprise environmental
factors)
4. Talk to Subject Matter Experts
5. Brainstorm
6. Create a Stakeholder Management Strategy
7. Continue Making Adjustments

Example
The project management participants in an web project based
on the hierarchy-

- Project Owner
- Project Sponsor
-- Project Manager
--- Team Leader
---- Database Architect
---- Programmer
---- Designer
---- HTML Developer
In the above example, we understand that the HTML
Developer reports to the team leader, who in turn reports to
the project manager, and who finally reports to the project
sponsor and the project owner.

There is no standard/generic project management hierarchy,

but PM hierarchies for the same industry are very similar.