A project can be comprised of many different elements and tasks and it is important that these can be delegated by the Project Manager so that he can remain focussed on the overall assignment.

The primary responsibility of the project coordinator is the maintenance and housekeeping work involved in keeping the project and its internal processes running smoothly; this includes a variety of tasks, such as keeping the announcement and open task lists updated, overseeing the assessment and review processes, managing the proposal and creation of task forces, and so forth. There is fairly little involved that couldn’t theoretically be done by any other editor but as often as people tend to assume that someone else is doing whatever needs to be done, it has proven beneficial in other projects to formally delegate responsibility for this administrative work to a specified person or group.

A Project Coordinator therefore operates on behalf of the Project Manager in order to assist in complex projects requiring the completion of numerous tasks.

The coordinator also has several additional roles like the project’s designated point of contact, and is explicitly listed as someone to whom questions can be directed in a variety of places around the project. In addition the role in: leading the drafting of project guidelines; overseeing the implementation of project decisions on issues like category schemes and template use; and tasks might include sourcing hardware, software and services through the internal sourcing departments or sourcing partners.

Other responsibilities would include the raising of purchase orders in a transparent and correct way or overseeing project budgets and informing the project manager if the project is going to overrun or has been miscalculated.