4 Types of Project Interfaces For Projects (+Examples)

Author

Adeniyi Salau

Created

April 17, 2023September 23, 2023

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9 min

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In my previous article, I looked at all that you need to know about the work breakdown structure for projects. In this article, I want to look at four types of project interface projects. Follow me as we are going to look at this together in this article.

While managing a project, handling the competing demands of human resources can have a significant impact on the success of the project.

You can efficiently organize human resources in a project by acquiring appropriate resources, identifying and documenting the roles and responsibilities of each resource in the project, and coordinating and managing the team to execute the work according to the project plan.

Project interfaces…
Project interfaces are various reporting relationships that occur internally or externally to a project. That means the different ways that different teams involved in a project interact with one another.

Now the interfaces…
#1 Organisational
These are the reporting relationships among organizational units.

They may be internal or external to the parent organization and include interfaces among the project team, upper management, other functional managers who support the team, and even the organization’s customers.

#2 Technical
These are the reporting relationships among technical disciplines on the project that occurs during a phase or during the transition between phases.

They reflect informal and formal relationships with people on the project team and outside of the team.

#3 Interpersonal
These are the formal and informal reporting relationships among individuals working on the project, whether internally or externally to the organization.

#4 Logical
These are the relationships between the project team members who are distributed across different buildings, countries, and other time zones in the organization.

#5 Political
These are relationships inside the organization. Different people have different interests in the organization and its projects.

Depending upon interpersonal dynamics and individual aspirations, people will try to satisfy their disclosed or undisclosed interests.

Responsibility Assignment Matrix…
A Responsibility Assignment Matrix is a chart that links key project stakeholders to specific project deliverables or activities by assigning responsibilities to each stakeholder for each element of work.

Some of the questions the RAM attempts to answer include:

Who is accountable for the completion of a specific deliverable or activity?
Who has sign-off authority on the deliverable or authority?
Who must be notified of the completion?
Who makes the acceptance or rejection decision?

In a large or complex project, a matrix may be used to show the responsibilities for major deliverables only.

A lower-level matrix may be developed to show work package roles and responsibilities within each deliverable.

Work package owners may develop a RAM that assigns responsibilities to each activity in the work package.

Listing RAM elements…
On a RAM, the deliverables or activities are listed vertically with the key project stakeholder positions, titles, or names listed horizontally. Responsibility for each deliverable or activity is assigned to one of the stakeholders.

A RACI chart
A RACI chart is a type of RAM that helps detect the level of responsibility for each project team member. RACI stand for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.

The RACI matrix helps identify who is responsible for making decisions and how the people responsible are supported.

RACI is generally used to provide clarity on the roles and responsibilities assigned to each project team member. The RACI chart is also called RASI chart, where “S” stand for “Supportive”.

PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

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