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Project Management Mistake - We Didn’t Have The Right Sponsorship - The Ideal Project Sponsor

October 12, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Stakeholder Management

Project Management Mistake - We Didn’t Have The Right Sponsorship - The Ideal Project Sponsor (#1 in the series Project Management Mistake - We Didn’t Have The Right Sponsorship)
By Lonnie Pacelli

Some years back I was appointed the lead program manager on an initiative which had as its objective to consolidate a number of disparate order management systems into a single system which supported all of the company’s order management needs. There were about five program managers working with me who each dragged in their respective customers to participate in the project. The project was sponsored by the IT organization with no sponsorship from the business owner. The project lumbered along for about two months with the customers continually questioning why they were working on a project that wasn’t on their manager’s radar. The business owner had finally had enough and called IT management and the lead program manager (me!) into a meeting. The meeting started off with the manager saying to IT, “Who told you to go do this project?” Now, I’m no rocket scientist, but it was pretty clear at that point that this was not to be one of my shining project management moments. While the meeting was very uncomfortable, I learned an extremely important lesson: absolutely, without a doubt, secure sponsorship on a project at the beginning, or suffer the consequences.

For any project, it’s crucial to get an appropriate level of project sponsorship. The ideal project sponsor for your project would possess the following characteristics:

  • He/she directly experiences the pain of the status quo and would directly benefit as a result of doing the project
  • He/she actively helped craft the project mission statement
  • He/she has the decision making authority to secure or re-allocate resources to/from other projects as necessary to ensure that your project can be completed successfully
  • He/she is willing to go to bat for your project with peer managers if you need help in getting something from another organization
  • He/she is willing to meet with you on a regular basis to ensure that you’re getting what you need to succeed
  • He/she is willing to make difficult decisions that may be unpopular but are in the best interests of the business
  • He/she has some “skin in the game” to ensure the project’s success

Lonnie Pacelli is an internationally recognized project management and leadership author and consultant with over 20 years experience at Microsoft, Accenture and his own company, Leading on the Edge International. Read more about Lonnie, subscribe to his newsletter, see his books and articles, and get lots of free self-study seminars, webcasts and resources.

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