Within the project management domain one has to have clear appreciation of the distinction between accountability and responsibility, according to Shim Marom, author of quantmleap.com. The fundamental point is the question of “when and where does the buck stop?” Is it the project manager who is by default the one who needs to pay the ultimate price for the failure or is this issue a bit more complicated than that? Is there a point at which things might happen under your watch for which you could not and would not take the responsibility?

1. Accountability Vs Responsibility In Project Management
How to make sure you always know when and with whom the buck stops, by Shim Marom
Where the Buck Stops
Within the project management domain one has to have clear appreciation of the distinction
between accountability and responsibility, according to Shim Marom, author of quantmleap.com.
The fundamental point is the question of “when and where does the buck stop?”
Is it the project manager who is by default the one who needs to pay the ultimate price for the failure
or is this issue a bit more complicated than that?
Is there a point at which things might happen under your watch for which you could not and would
not take the responsibility?
The Difference Between Accountability and Responsibility
There don’t seem to be clear and unanimous definitions for each of these terms, for instance…
“Responsibility may be bestowed, but accountability must be taken. In other words, responsibility
can be given or received, even assumed, but that doesn’t automatically guarantee that personal
accountability will be taken. Which means that it’s possible to bear responsibility for something or