Strategies for Project Sponsorship

Vicki James, Ron Rosenhead, Peter Taylor

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781567264074
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

Optimize the Role of the Project Sponsor The project sponsor is critical to project success, yet it is a role that is often assigned to a member of the organization with little knowledge or training in project management practices. This creates challenges not only for the sponsor but for the project manager. The organization suffers too if key members of the project team are not fully utilized, as valuable resources are wasted. In Strategies for Project Sponsorship, the authors address this challenge from all three vantage points—that of the project manager, the project sponsor, and the organization. Based on their practical experience and solid research, they offer practical methods that project manager s can use to optimize the participation of the sponsor. They also offer clear and straightforward guidance for project sponsors on how to properly execute their duties and contribute to project success. Executives will gain valuable perspective on the organization's projects and key players. From defining the roles and responsibilities of the project sponsor to suggesting specific practices that maximize the working relationship between the sponsor and project manager, this book is the ultimate guide. Examples from real-world sponsor experiences, as well as tips, techniques, and tools, enhance its applicability and practicality. This book should be given to every newly assigned project sponsor, read and referred to by every project manager, and on the desk of every organizational executive as a reference.

PART I

For the Project Manager

CHAPTER 1

Preparing to Work with Your Sponsor

How many project managers get to choose the projects they manage? Not many. The project allocation process in most companies just doesn’t work that way, does it?

Now, how many project managers get to choose the project sponsors they work with? Probably none. Again, it just doesn’t work that way in most, perhaps any, organizations. You won’t get the opportunity to ask a sponsor for her résumé and put her through a formal interview process—nice as it would be to say, “I’m sorry, but I just don’t think that this is the job for you right now,” if she isn’t a great fit for the position.

But perhaps you can, through your experience and your relationships with executive management, request a particular person you know you can work effectively with to partner with you once again on your next project. You also can try to educate the decision-makers about how to select the best possible project sponsor. You may be able to influence the way the organization selects and assigns sponsors by sharing some high-level definitions and expectations of the sponsor role based on this book and other best practices. (Chapter 6 provides more information on these concepts.)

Even if you don’t have the perfect sponsor, you can prepare to work with the one you have by knowing what you’re in for and making sure you get off to a good start.

WHO SHOULD SPONSOR YOUR PROJECT?

Make a judgment call on what competencies this particular project requires. Is the project simple or complex? Should you ask to be assigned the sponsor you want, or can you risk working with a new (perhaps good, perhaps not) sponsor on this project? There are probably several people within the organization who could be good sponsors for your project. The following criteria will help you work with executive management to appoint the person most likely to guide the project to success:

• Who has the greatest interest in the outcomes of the project?

• Who has the greatest influence with the high-level stakeholders of the project?

• Does this person have proven experience in sponsoring projects?

• Does this person have the capacity to be an effective collaborator and leader for the project manager and project team?

• Does this person have education and experience in project management best practices?

• Does this person trust those around him to act in the best interest of the project?

If the same person is named in your responses to questions 1 and 2, and you can answer yes to the remaining questions, you have your sponsor.

If the person named in your answers to 1 and 2 is not capable of sponsoring the project, look for a trusted delegate to assign as sponsor, or negotiate and document the roles of the delegate (the more capable person) and the sponsor (the more influential person).

If you name different people when answering questions 1 and 2, select the more appropriate sponsor based on the answers to the remaining questions.

Remember that lacking competencies can be mitigated through sponsor education. Help the sponsor understand what is in it for her and how these competencies can maximize the chance for project success.

ASSESSING YOUR SPONSOR

Let’s say you’ve been assigned a project and a sponsor, and that is that. You’re left to deal with what you’ve been given. It is said that you cannot manage what you don’t measure, and that is as true for project sponsors as it is for anything. So let’s start there: how can you assess your project sponsor? In this book, we give you a variety of checklists to help you to understand your project sponsor (see later chapters and appendixes). Below, we detail other tools you as the project manager can use to better understand your sponsor and then to adapt your communication style and project approach to make the most of her skills.

THE POWER GRID

You can use the power grid shown in Figure 1-1 to assess your newly assigned sponsor—specifically her interest in your project (from high to low) and her actual power in your organization (also from high to low). This may well be challenging to determine early on—especially if you have never worked with this sponsor beforehand—however you can update your assessment as you personally get to know your sponsor better and you build a relationship.

FIGURE 1-1: Power Grid for Assessing Sponsors

Initially, though, you can use your past observations of this sponsor (if you have any), current discussions (that you are undertaking with the sponsor—you are on that learning curve already), and peer responses (you can ask your colleague project managers about the sponsor if they have worked with her on past projects).

The power grid suggests general courses of action you can try to manage your relationship with any sponsor.

If your project sponsor falls into the “low interest, low power” quadrant, you really have a problem. It is unlikely that this sponsor will ever support your project management endeavors; even if she could be persuaded to, her influence is so weak that her cooperation is not worth pursuing.

On the other hand, a “high interest, high power” sponsor can be very useful indeed. However, she will also have to be managed carefully, because her high interest in the project could lead to micromanagement and long, overly detailed update meetings. This is not something that a project manager wishes to encourage.

Let’s take a closer look at specific strategies for managing to the power grid:

• Manage closely. This sponsor is very interested in what is going on with your project and has great influence over it. As such, she should always have the most current information on project progress and challenges and should be able to provide the helicopter view—i.e., whether it sits with the overall strategy of what is going on. Reporting to this sponsor may mean daily emails and weekly meetings. The danger of not “managing closely” is that trust will not be optimized, thereby creating a risk for micromanagement from the sponsor.

• Keep satisfied. Find out what your project sponsor expects and meet those needs. The goal is to provide enough information that she feels informed but not so much that she feels burdened. Make requests of her only when there are no other channels, and come armed with a completed analysis of options already considered.

• Keep informed. Interested sponsors require information, so make sure you have processes in place so they know about progress and challenges and how to easily gain further information of they feel that they need it. This includes weekly status updates and regularly scheduled meetings.

• Monitor. Ask questions of your sponsor to ensure she feels informed, knowledgeable, and included in the project. This sponsor may not be keeping up with the project progress and status, so your challenge is to make sure that she both understands and appropriately acts on project successes and challenges when needed.

TYPES OF POWER

All project stakeholders—indeed, anyone in an organization—can hold one or more types of power. Which of the following does your sponsor have? Which do you have?

• Legitimate: power endowed by a formal title or position (authority)

• Reward: power held by those who are able to impose positive consequences (carrot)

• Coercive: power held by those who can impose negative consequences (stick)

• Financial: power held by those who control the budget (money)

• Bureaucratic: power held by those with knowledge of the system (intelligence)

• Referent: power endowed by association with someone else’s power (network)

• Technical: power held by those who have technical knowledge relating to the project (skill)

• Charismatic: power granted through personality alone (character).

You and your sponsor can work together to use her (and your) power how and when you need to. But use it sparingly and use it wisely.

Let’s take a closer look at these types of power and how they can be used:

• Legitimate power. Regardless of the type of organization—hierarchical or matrix—in which you work, the more senior a person is, the greater the opportunity to assert authority and cause things to happen. This power should be used sparingly.

• Reward power. Commonly used to engage resources and stakeholders, this power may be used at the start of a project as part of a marketing activity or later in the project to focus efforts and meet a deliverable milestone. Rewards can be offered directly from the sponsor or through you, the project manager, as fits the situation. Rewards can also be offered for good work or given as surprise “thank-yous” to good contributors.

• Coercive power. Perhaps the least used type, this will likely achieve what you and your sponsor want but not gain ongoing cooperation. Often...