Projects Coordinator / Resourcing Coordinator
Summary
Below are two new roles proposed in the Project Playbook. They are, in reality, just more clearly defined versions of what’s already in place. It makes sense, at present, for these to be held by the same person, but in time the Projects Coordinator role may grow and become a role more akin to the Support Lead.
Projects Coordinator
Purpose
The Projects Coordinator holds an overview of all active projects, ensures that the portfolio as a whole is coherent, and owns the Initiation phase that makes each project operationally real. The focus is outward across the portfolio: what is happening, when, and whether it all fits together.
Authority
The Projects Coordinator has authority to make portfolio-level decisions: sequencing projects, timing project starts, and determining how teams are lined up across the pipeline. These decisions are made in consultation with the relevant PMs and, where resourcing is affected, with the Resourcing function. In practice, consensus is nearly always reached. Where genuine disagreement cannot be resolved, the Projects Coordinator’s decision stands, and either party may escalate to the Delivery Circle.
This authority exists because someone needs to hold the portfolio view and act on it. The PM is accountable for delivery within their project; the Projects Coordinator is accountable for the health of the whole.
Owns: Initiation phase
The handover from Pre-project (New Work or Account Management) comes to the Projects Coordinator. In reality many of the project tasks will be delegated to the Project Manager once they are confirmed. https://projects.docs.agile.coop/01-how-projects-work/02-initiation/
Owns: Ongoing responsibilities
Portfolio visibility
- Maintain a current, accurate view of all active and upcoming projects: phase, key milestones, status
- Identify and flag interdependencies between projects — shared team members, related clients, sequencing
- Spot potential conflicts or bottlenecks before they become problems and act on them
- Ensure project status information in Harvest is kept up to date
- Flag inconsistencies or gaps in reporting data
Internal communication
- Keep the team informed about the overall project landscape: what’s starting, ending, at a critical juncture
- Ensure the PM and relevant team members have the cross-project context they need
- Surface project-level concerns to the appropriate person (PM, sponsor, or Delivery Circle)
Process & documentation
- Ensure kick-off and close-down steps are followed consistently, as defined in the playbook
- Maintain cross-project trackers, dashboards, or shared documents the team relies on
- Support handovers between phases, ensuring documentation is in place
- Contract administration
What the Projects Coordinator does NOT do
- Manage individual project delivery, scope or client relationships
- Make strategic decisions about which projects to take on
- Own UX, technical or commercial decisions
- Line manage team members
Escalation: Delivery Circle
The Projects Coordinator escalates to the Delivery Circle when:
- A portfolio-level decision cannot be resolved through consultation with the PM
- A project cannot be resourced or sequenced without affecting commitments made elsewhere
- Delivery risk is visible at portfolio level and requires strategic input
- Process or governance issues sit outside the Projects Coordinator’s authority to resolve
Resourcing Coordinator
Purpose
The Resourcing function is concerned with the team: who is available, what they are working on, and whether people’s time is allocated well. The focus is inward across the team: capacity, wellbeing, development, and making sure internal work is visible and protected alongside client work.
Authority
The Resourcing function has authority to make allocation decisions: who works on what project, at what capacity, and when. These decisions are made in consultation with the Projects Coordinator and relevant PMs. This authority exists to protect both project delivery and team health. Without a named decision-maker for allocation, resourcing defaults to whoever shouts loudest. The Resourcing function holds the whole-team view that individual PMs cannot hold for their own projects.
Responsibilities
- Capacity planning
- Maintain a current view of team capacity across all members, including part-time arrangements, leave and non-billable commitments
- Forecast capacity needs against the pipeline of upcoming work, working closely with the Projects Coordinator
- Carry out initial resourcing and availability checks during Initiation
- Identify capacity gaps or conflicts early and act on them
- Match team members to projects based on skills, availability and development goals
- Allocation & scheduling
- Ensure Forecast reflects accurate, up-to-date allocations for all team members
- Update allocations when projects change phase, scope or timeline
- Coordinate the scheduling of new projects into the team’s workload
- Ensure team members know what they are on and when, with enough notice to plan their work
- Internal work visibility
- Ensure that internal projects and cooperative governance activities are reflected in resourcing plans alongside client work
- Advocate for appropriate time being protected for non-billable work
- Flag when internal commitments are at risk of being squeezed by client pressure
- People & communication
- Give team members clear, timely information about their upcoming allocations
- Provide enough context for team members to understand what a project involves before they start
- Ensure transitions between projects are managed smoothly
- Be attentive to team wellbeing in allocation decisions — workload, variety, development
- What the Resourcing function does NOT do
- Make strategic decisions about hiring or team composition — those sit with the Operations Circle
- Manage the commercial negotiation of project scope or budgets
- Performance-manage individual team members
- Make portfolio-level decisions about project sequencing — that is the Projects Coordinator
Escalation: Operations Circle
The Resourcing function escalates to the Operations Circle when:
- An allocation decision cannot be resolved through consultation
- A team member is consistently over-capacity and the situation cannot be resolved within existing projects
- Internal work is systematically being de-prioritised in favour of billable work
- A resourcing issue has implications for team welfare, contracts or pay
- Capacity constraints suggest a structural issue (team size, skills mix) that requires a strategic response
Meeting schedules
- Weekly coordination meeting: PMs / PC / RC
- Fortnightly overview meetings: PMs / PC / RC / Finance / AM / New work / Support rep
- Per project: initiation kick off : PM / PC
- Per project: internal team kick off: Project team / PC / RC
- Quarterly process review meetings
Meeting schedules
- Weekly digest to team about their upcoming work (rocket)
- Monthly digest to Ops, Delivery and General
Time Commitment
Projects coordinator
- Weekly coordination meetings: 45 mins
- Weekly prep per project: 10 mins
- Once off admin per project: 2 hours ( handover, KO, admin )
- Reporting to Delivery, monthly: 1 hour
- Fortnightly coordination meeting: 1 hour + 30 mins prep
- Monthly meeting with Finance: 1 hour
Resourcing coordinator
- Weekly coordination meetings: 45 mins
- Weekly prep per individual: 5 mins
- Fortnightly coordination meeting: 1 hour + 30 mins prep
- Reporting to Operations: 1 hour / monthly
Combined role = 0.5 / day / week
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