- According to Gartner, more than 70% of recently implemented ERPs will not fully achieve their business objectives by 2027, with the most common cause of failure being a lack of executive team engagement.
- According to the PMI’s Pulse of the Profession 2025 report, project professionals with high business acumen achieve business objectives in 83% of cases, compared to 78% for others.
- According to Panorama Consulting (2026), more than a quarter of organizations have exceeded their ERP project budget, with unforeseen technological needs being the primary cause.
- An IT project team includes nine key roles divided into three groups: governance, design, and delivery (PlanAxion, 2026).
A manufacturer in the Beauce region begins implementing its ERP. The VP of Finance "sponsors" the project but never attends a single committee meeting. The IT Director is simultaneously piloting, designing, and testing. Six months later, no one knows who approved the scope or who represents the warehouse users. The problem isn't the software: it's the roles.
The figures cited are from public studies (Gartner, PMI, Panorama Consulting) and describe market trends, not the specific situation of your project.
According to Gartner, more than 70% of recently implemented ERP initiatives will not fully achieve their initial business objectives by 2027, and up to 25% will fail catastrophically, most often due to a lack of engagement from the executive team.
What are the key roles in an IT project team, and why should they be defined?
An IT project team relies on nine key roles: the sponsor, the project manager, the PCO, the solution architect, the business analyst, the software expert, the developer, the infrastructure lead, and the change management lead. A role is defined by its tasks and responsibilities, not by a job title. Each member can hold multiple roles, provided that each one is clearly assigned and accepted.
Defining roles is not a bureaucratic exercise. Gartner cites unclear division of responsibilities as a direct cause of delays, scope creep, and budget overruns. A role without an owner is a decision that no one is making.
Key figures to keep in mind:
- According to Gartner, 75% of ERP strategies are not strongly aligned with overall business strategy, which fuels confusion and disappointing results.
- According to the PMI’s 2025 Pulse of the Profession report (2,254 professionals surveyed), only 18% of project professionals demonstrate strong business acumen; these individuals achieve business objectives in 83% of cases, compared to 78%, and stay on budget in 73% of cases, compared to 66%.
- Also according to the PMI (2025), 96% of respondents consider stakeholder management to be important or very important, making it the most widely agreed-upon competency in the survey.
- According to the 2026 Panorama Consulting ERP report, more than a quarter of organizations went over budget, with unforeseen technological needs being the primary cause.
Who governs the project: the sponsor, the project manager, and the PCO?
Three roles ensure governance: the sponsor, who secures resources and is accountable for benefits; the project manager, who delivers the solution within scope, schedule, and budget; and the PCO, who manages the governance processes and prepares reporting. When one of the three is missing, the other two struggle to compensate.
The sponsor. They secure human, material, and financial resources from the organization and act as the project's ambassador to senior management. They participate in major decisions, champion the transformation, and remain responsible for delivering the expected benefits. They leverage their internal relationships to remove political obstacles. A sponsor who delegates their presence at the steering committee is no longer a sponsor.
The project manager. They are accountable for delivering the new solution. They lead work planning and estimation, ensure adherence to scope, schedule, and budget, implement the required management processes, and report progress to the sponsor.
The PCO (Project Control Officer). They ensure that management processes are actually applied: tracking hours, risks, changes, and deliverables. They help the project manager prepare reliable reporting. On a project of over 5,000 hours, this role frees up the project manager to focus on what matters: decisions.
Who designs the solution: the architect, the business analyst, and the software expert?
Three roles shape the solution: the solution architect, who provides technical leadership and integration; the business analyst, who masters the requirements and represents the project’s "clients"; and the software expert, who ensures the software’s features align with business needs. Their ongoing collaboration helps avoid costly customizations.
The solution architect. They ensure no components are missing (business solution, ERP, specialized modules), design integrations with existing systems, validate data flows, and review major data structures. They confirm the validity of the implementation approach and guide the team in understanding the solution. The role of the solution architect in 2026 goes far beyond technical expertise.
The business analyst. They master the business requirements the project aims to satisfy, design new processes with the software expert, choose the best practices to incorporate, and actively participate in testing. They work with process owners until the solution is accepted. We detail the role of the business analyst in IT projects in a separate article.
The software expert. They work with business experts to match requirements with functionality, configure applications, and support solution validation. They provide the product expertise without which the project would reinvent what the software already does.
Who builds and deploys: the developer, the infrastructure manager, or the change management lead?
Three roles build and deploy: the developer, who programs conversions, interfaces, reports, and customizations; the infrastructure manager, who translates requirements into functional servers, networks, and software; and the change management lead, who prepares the organization to adopt new processes. The third one is almost always the first to be cut.
The developer. They prepare programs to import data into the new system, build interfaces with existing applications, program missing reports, and carry out the necessary customizations for the organization's specific needs. Every customization must be justified: modifying software packages remains a very costly habit.
The infrastructure manager. They analyze requirements to translate them into an appropriate infrastructure solution, install servers, networks, software, and peripherals, and ensure the infrastructure functions properly throughout the project, including test environments.
The change management lead. They define the communication, training, and organizational development strategies necessary for adopting new processes. They also accelerate the maturity of the project team itself. Gartner ranks low user adoption among the top causes of ERP failure; change management is much more than just a communication plan.
A role without an owner is a decision no one makes and a bill everyone pays.
How do you adapt these roles to the size of your project?
The nine roles remain relevant regardless of project scale, but their intensity varies: an SME with 80 employees will often assign several roles to the same person, whereas a multi-site project will require a full-time person for each. Other roles may be added depending on the nature of the project and the organization's culture: data manager, testing lead, process owners.
The rule remains the same: every role has a name, a person, and reserved time, all written into the project charter before launch.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the sponsor and the project manager?
The sponsor is accountable for business benefits and provides the resources: they sit on the executive team, make major decisions, and remove political obstacles. The project manager is accountable for delivery: scope, schedule, budget, and management processes. The former decides the "why" and the resources; the latter organizes the "how" and reports to the former.
What is a PCO on a project team?
The PCO (Project Control Officer) ensures that the planned management processes are actually applied: tracking hours, costs, risks, change requests, and deliverables. They prepare dashboards and help the project manager produce reliable reporting for the steering committee.
Can one person hold multiple roles?
Yes, and it is common in SMEs. A business analyst can also act as a software expert, and an IT director as an infrastructure manager. However, two combinations are risky: sponsor and project manager, because no one is left to oversee delivery, and project manager and change management lead, because adoption always ends up taking a backseat.
Why appoint a change management lead from the very beginning?
Because adoption is decided during the project, not after. Gartner cites low user adoption and a lack of understanding of organizational change as some of the most frequent causes of ERP failure. A lead appointed at the scoping stage plans communications and training in sync with the project, rather than three weeks before go-live.
Which role represents the users in an IT project?
The business analyst represents the project's "clients." They master the requirements, work with process owners, and participate in testing until the solution is accepted. They do not replace the key users themselves—who must be freed from their daily tasks to validate processes—but they structure and advocate for their voice within the team.
- Gartner, Enterprise Resource Planning Insights: predicts that over 70% of recent ERPs will not fully achieve their objectives by 2027, 25% catastrophic failures, 75% poorly aligned ERP strategies, lack of executive engagement and unclear division of responsibilities as causes of failure.
- Project Management Institute, Pulse of the Profession 2025: 2,254 professionals surveyed, 18% with high business acumen, 83% of objectives met vs 78%, 73% of budgets met vs 66%, stakeholder management deemed important by 96% of respondents.
- Panorama Consulting Group, ERP 2026 report press release: more than a quarter of organizations over budget, unforeseen technological needs as the primary cause.