Emily Lewis wants to make certain her level of authority is clearly established. While this project is larger and a little more complex than others she has experience with, Emily does have a successful track record and a crack project team. Susan Gilbert, vice president of client services, is the project sponsor.

Susan, Emily says, thanks for taking the time to meet with me. I ve taken the liberty of typing up some bullet items for us to discuss regarding my authority level on this project and the escalation process.

Great. That should save us some time.

As you know, we ve already got a highly skilled team of folks assigned to this project. And I appreciate you allowing me to help choose the team members. However, some issues here and there have crept up that I d like to put an end to now by establishing my authority level for the project and the escalation policies for the team and the vendor. Here s the list of items we should discuss. Emily hands Susan the following list:

• Setting up decision levels and escalation

• Administering consequences

• Approving vendor deliverables

• Assigning project tasks to team members

• Having input on team members performance reviews

• Creating a project reporting structure

• Escalating decisions and project issues

Susan quickly scans the list. Right off I can tell you that you are the one responsible for approving vendor deliverables, which includes signing off on all invoices less than $10,000, and assigning project tasks to team members. I also...