Desirable Executive Sponsor Characteristics
“Effective sponsorship is largely dependent upon the personal characteristics and behavior of the individuals carrying out the role.”1
Desirable executive sponsor characteristics are the roles, responsibilities, and behaviors recommended for consideration when crafting or enhancing the sponsor role. This chapter explores current thinking for baselining these areas and provides insight into why effectively executing these characteristics positively influences project outcomes. Behaviors and temperaments are discussed first to lay a foundation as to why just having clear roles and responsibilities are not enough. The combination of all of these characteristics is necessary to effectively execute the executive sponsor role.
Desirable Behaviors and Temperaments
Project sponsors do not have to be perfect but they need to be willing to adapt their style to the project context to be effective.2 Beyond sponsor roles and responsibilities, in this chapter we also explore behaviors and temperaments necessary for effective executive sponsorship, and use scenarios to provide examples and rationale for our assertions. Figure 5.1 highlights the behaviors and temperaments to be explored.
Academic research and our experience agree that three key project sponsor behaviors are directly associated with performance.3
• Excellent communication and listening skills
• Artful handling of ambiguity
• Ability to manage self
Figure 5.1 Desirable behaviors and temperaments
When one or more of these behaviors is deficient, the project sponsor’s effectiveness is diminished and the project manager must then try to compensate and deal with the additional risks introduced by the sponsor. Dealing with sponsor shortcomings increases project chaos and increases the project manager’s workload, taking time away from other project management activities. In the following sections we explore these sponsor behaviors and temperaments and why they are important.
Communication and Listening Skills
Sponsors need to communicate effectively with everyone who influences the project. This could be their peers, the client, the project manager, the project team, and various stakeholders such as partners, vendors, or other interested parties. As examples, sponsors brief the executive team, justify continued project investment, and provide direction and counsel to the project manager. In addition, they make decisions on scope, schedule, or cost changes and evaluate the merits of risk-response plans. Each of these responsibilities requires effective communication skill for understanding, influencing, negotiating, motivating, and empathizing with various constituencies.
To communicate effectively, sponsors need to be active listeners. Active listening describes the active process of giving the person speaking your full attention and confirming your understanding of what has been said before responding. It is a skill that can be learned, but it takes practice and effort. The ability to listen is critical when trying to expose a problem, understand the concerns of others, or determine and prioritize action. Whether exploring the basis of disagreements, searching for compromise, or responding to a crisis or new information, sponsors need to determine when to lead and when to mentor. They do this by actively listening to their team4 and stakeholders. Active listening is also a powerful motivation tool. Being an engaged listener improves morale and helps build and sustain relationships.5 When project team members feel someone is listening they are more likely to believe they have a voice and their opinions are welcomed and heard. This is not only good for the team, but it also encourages timely delivery of bad news as well as discussion of unpopular or controversial opinions or information that might otherwise be lost.
Effective Communication
When conducting project reviews of failed projects it is common for leadership to claim that it was blind-sided by the failure and that there was little or no warning from the project team. Conversations with team members often paint a significantly different picture. Teams often report being aware that projects were in trouble or beyond hope months before the failure was apparent. When asked why this information was not shared with leadership, the three most common answers we have encountered are:
1. We tried to tell our leaders, but they did not listen
2. Leadership made clear that they did not want to know about problems
3. We were told to “stop being so negative”
Artful Handling of Ambiguity
The second key behavior is the art of handling ambiguity, and it is one of the major challenges facing sponsors especially in complex programs and projects.6 Complex projects constantly change and evolve and sponsors must give clear direction and make rapid decisions to keep the effort on track. Making decisions in the face of uncertainty requires courage and wisdom; the courage to be wrong, and the wisdom to know when to act and when to wait for more information. When problems or conflicting priorities emerge, the project manager looks to the sponsor for direction to choose among available options for the best response.
Handling Ambiguity
Conventional management wisdom suggests leaders gather all relevant facts before making a decision, sometimes unintentionally stalling decisions to the detriment of the project. Effective sponsors add notable qualifiers to the competencies of decisiveness and responsiveness, respectively, making “clear and responsible” decisions and “rapid and thoughtful” responses. Sponsor should consider the following as part of all decision making:
1. Is this issue time sensitive?
2. What are the risks and costs of a delayed decision?
3. Are there plausible solutions available?
4. Are there adequate facts to make a decision?
5. What are the pros and cons of this decision?
6. Is there an acceptable and defendable explanation and rationale for decision?
Sponsors who adapt to change, make timely crucial decisions, and offer clear direction in times of uncertainty are perceived as more competent leaders. Their decisive actions allow the project team to sustain forward momentum, adjust plans, and execute. On the other hand, late decisions and poor decisions are detrimental to project success and team morale. Responsiveness and decisiveness are valued. Sponsors should not make their teams work harder or wait longer than necessary to get a decision.
Desirable sponsor leadership characteristics for dealing with ambiguity:
• Seek to understand the issues and consider all available information.
• Solicit and assess the opinions of others and engage team members in the decision-making process when appropriate.
• Look for unstated assumptions that may be influencing recommendations.
• Make tough decisions promptly.
• Explain the rationale for decisions—this enables project managers to anticipate sponsor thinking and refine the information and options presented in the future.
• Be clear when giving direction.
• Keep stakeholders apprised of decisions.
• When a previous decision must be changed, use facts and explain why.
• When mistakes are discovered, own them and deal with the consequences.
Ability to Manage Self
The third key sponsor behavior is the ability to manage self. Executive sponsorship cannot become one of many “other duties as assigned.” The sponsors are accountable for managing their time and priorities. Although sponsorship is typically not an executive’s only duty, sponsors must be capable of balancing competing demands for their time and attention and assuring the project receives an appropriate share.7
When project challenges arise, project manager’s access to the sponsor is essential. The frequency of interaction necessary between project manager and sponsor can vary over the life of the project.8 It is important to understand the project management process and sponsor roles and responsibilities at each stage of the project to anticipate the level of support a project manager requires as a project progresses. This can be complicated when working with project managers of different experience levels. Project managers have strengths and weaknesses just like sponsors, and some need more sponsor guidance than others. Complex projects generally require a greater commitment of sponsor time. No matter the complexity, projects encountering trouble require more sponsor time.
Demonstrating the ability to manage self is not only important with respect to correctly allocating sponsor time and attention; it demonstrates commitment to the project and models effective behavior for the project manager and the team.
Self-management can be demonstrated in a number of ways:
• Arriving promptly for scheduled meetings
• Not allowing sponsor participation in team events to be disrupted for anything other than true emergencies (ignoring cell phones, discouraging others from interrupting meetings for calls or signatures)
• When accepting a task, ensuring follow-through
• Respecting commitments made to the project team for decisions or turnaround of document reviews
Being Responsive, Collaborative, and Approachable
The findings regarding communication, ambiguity, and self-management are consistent with our experience, although we would add/emphasize that being responsive, collaborative, and approachable are essential traits as well. Keeping in mind that projects are temporary endeavors,9 choosing to display these temperaments aids the sponsor in creating an environment that energizes the team.
For example:
• Promptly responding to meeting requests
• Promptly responding to email or voice mail
• Taking the time to thoughtfully answer questions
• Giving credit to others for their good ideas
• Seeking opportunities for informal conversations with the project manager over breakfast, coffee, or lunch
• Welcoming and seeking the input of others
• Explicitly acknowledging mistakes
• When decisions or guidance change, discussing the change and explaining the rationale behind it
Exploring Current Roles and Responsibilities
Describing and encouraging desired sponsor behavior establishes goals, but does not provide actionable information about current sponsor performance and how to achieve improvement. Sponsors must consistently exhibit these behaviors in the context of performing their role and responsibilities to be effective. How might sponsor performance be gauged? Self-assessment is relatively easy, but has limitations. Research shows that sponsors typically rate themselves higher than project teams in the performance of their role.10 As outlined in Chapter 1, there are tools available to frame and assess the necessary competencies for sponsorship, such as the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) Framework. Recognizing that there are different approaches for implementing project sponsorship and judging performance, GAPPS’ “Guiding Framework for Project Sponsors” provides one performance-based method for assessing sponsor roles and responsibilities. The primary roles that comprise sponsorship in the GAPPS framework are11:
1. Taking accountability for the project—Accountability means that the sponsor is responsible for how well the project is managed, the success or failure of the product or service the project provides, and the realization of benefits to be achieved by the project.
2. Supporting the project manager—The project manager has day-to-day responsibility for the project, whereas the sponsor has overall responsibility for the outcomes. Support in this context refers to being available to the project manager for questions and guidance, providing timely information regarding project and organizational priorities, and facilitating resolution of organizational and political issues beyond the authority of the project manager. It also includes providing the project manager with feedback on his or her performance.
3. Supporting the project—This includes providing resources, decision making, cultivating and sustaining stakeholder commitment, and participating in project reviews.
A table outlining the GAPPS Sponsorship Framework appears below. For purposes of relating GAPPS material to the terminology in our book, “Units” represent sponsor roles, “Elements” are examples and aspects of the associated responsibilities for each role, and “Performance Criteria” are measurable and observable ways to assess how well the role and responsibility are being executed:
The GAPPS framework is a tool used to assess an individual sponsor based on his or her observed performance to determine that individual’s likelihood of being able to perform the role competently in the future, while providing feedback about opportunities for improvement and professional development. This assessment assumes a sponsor is considered competent only if he or she satisfies 100 percent of the performance criteria through the evidence supplied in a dialogue with the assessor. If all performance criteria are not met, the sponsor would be assessed “unable to provide evidence of competency” in that area.12 The assessment results could be useful input to a development plan.
Although the framework is thorough and helpful for assessing roles and responsibilities, a bit more context may help clarify why these sponsorship behaviors and temperaments are such important aspects of executive sponsorship. Scenarios are presented below that examine each of the roles and its associated responsibilities in Table 5.1.
Role 1. Take Accountability for the Project
Projects are undertaken because the business outcome to be delivered is believed valuable to the organization. Although the value proposition may be complex and involve many parts of the organization, the sponsor is the keeper and chief arbiter of that value. Although it is reasonable to expect a project manager to attend to a project’s business case, the sponsor has primary responsibility for assuring that the initial business case is sound. Monitoring emerging information about the business context, the organization’s goals and direction, and the project itself as the effort progresses to assure all remain aligned is the sponsor’s responsibility.
The following three scenarios provide context for evaluating a sponsor’s ability to “take accountability for the project” while demonstrating effective behaviors. Each scenario could also serve as a situational training tool for sponsor professional development.
Scenario: The Orphan
In your new role as executive sponsor you inherit a project to develop and implement a new automated time keeping process throughout the enterprise and integrate it with the existing payroll system. In discussions with the project manager, you are unable to identify a business justification for the project. There is no apparent relationship between this project and the organization’s strategic plan. What should the sponsor do?
Table 5.1 Summary of roles, responsibilities, and performance criteria worksheet13
GAPPS 1.1 Ensure the Project is Justified
• The value of this project should be questioned. Does it offer significant cost savings or productivity improvement? Is the system mandated? What is the problem the system seeks to solve? If the project manager is unaware of a compelling business case, it might be appropriate to reach out to other executives to determine if a business case exists now or ever existed. This project may have been started without proper vetting, or the business need may have faded after the project was launched. One of a sponsor’s primary roles is to assure that any project in the portfolio is the best use of organizational resources at the present time.
• Although the sponsor is the guardian of the business case, the project manager should always be aware of the business imperative so that it can guide his or her decision making. This scenario presents a mentoring opportunity for the sponsor to reinforce the project manager’s role with respect to the business case. If the project manager offered concerns about the business justification to the sponsor unbidden, this is an opportunity for the sponsor to appreciate and encourage that behavior. If the lack of business justification only emerged in response to sponsor questions, the sponsor might encourage the project manager to raise the issue if ever the business value of the project appears questionable.
• The team should also be made aware of the project business case. Team members will often see tactical opportunities to better address the business need while they are engaged in the project, provided they are clear on the project goals and priorities. Teams that understand the project rationale can bring these opportunities to the attention of leadership for consideration.
This scenario underscores the relationship between the project manager and the sponsor, and the role of the sponsor as the principle custodian of the business case. The sponsor and project manager are partners in delivering business value, but the sponsor monitors the value proposition for change. The sponsor is the first line of defense for the organization in terms of realigning the project, redefining it, or stopping it should the business case unravel.
Scenario: Noncompliance
A project review determines that your project is not following standards mandated for your regulated industry. What should the sponsor do?
GAPPS 1.2 Sustain Effective Governance
• Meet promptly with the project manager to discuss the finding. Was noncompliance a choice or an oversight? Who made this choice? What was the rationale? What are the consequences of the choice? Did the person making the decision have the authority to do so? Do project records reflect the decision? Is this a decision that should have been made by the sponsor?
• Determine whether similar decisions or omissions have been made.
• Assess this issue’s effect on the business case? Is the project still valuable?
Although there should always be room for human mistakes, this scenario focuses on the challenge of assessing the difference between incompetence, sloppiness, business decisions, and honest errors. Just as the project manager establishes the ethical tone for the team, the sponsor establishes the ethical tone for the project and ensures that effective governance is sustained. Intentionally “failing to notice” a true requirement should only occur with sponsor consultation and approval.
The project manager and sponsor must develop and sustain an open dialog about project issues so that surprises like this do not occur. In this case, the sponsor should mentor the project manager while jointly analyzing the situation and deciding the next course of action. This scenario also ties closely to the sponsor’s responsibility of providing feedback on the performance of the project manager.
Scenario: Riches to Rags
Your organization has had a string of successful products and is flush with cash. A project is launched to develop a new product to complement the existing product line. Comparable products exist, but marketing believes a solid, minimal-function product under your brand could be sold to existing customers. The development effort is expected to take 18 months. Six months after the project begins, there is a significant financial downturn and capital becomes tight. The portfolio of projects is reviewed for nonessential projects that can be killed or deferred. What should the sponsor do?
GAPPS 1.3 Orchestrate Plans for Benefits Realization
• An effective sponsor will keep the project manager apprised of the effects of the economic downturn on the organization and might encourage the project manager to review plans to see if there are ways to further reduce costs by extending the schedule or trimming functionality in anticipation of resource constraints.
• Although there may be insufficient information outlined in the brief scenario above to justify a decision to kill the project, the project’s business case should certainly be reviewed in light of emerging economic conditions for possible termination, deferral, or trimming of scope.
This scenario underscores the nature of the relationship to be built and sustained between the sponsor and the project manager as well as the necessity of the sponsor monitoring the performance and priorities of the organization to anticipate impacts to projects. When project benefits appear to be waning it is the sponsor’s responsibility to reassess business value in consultation with relevant stakeholders.
Role 2. Support the Project Manager
Support for the project manager includes helping the project manager navigate organizational politics; assuring the project manager has ready access to the sponsor to obtain decisions, guidance and assistance; providing the project manager with timely access to strategic information affecting the project; and monitoring project manager performance and providing timely feedback. The following three scenarios highlight sponsor responsibilities.
Scenario: Market Evaporates
Your organization has identified an unserved niche in the marketplace and initiated a project to fill that niche. The development effort is expected to take 12 months. Shortly after the project begins, the project manager becomes aware that a larger competitor has announced and begun to ship a more feature-rich product than your project is building, which is priced at 80 percent of your target price. The project manager meets with the sponsor and shares this new information. What should the sponsor do?
GAPPS 2.1 Be Available to the Project Manager
• Recognize the project manager for taking the initiative to contact the sponsor. Project managers and team members often incorrectly assume that executives have perfect and timely information regarding all aspects of a project’s industry, marketplace, and applicable knowledge domains. A project manager who recognizes this information about a competitor is relevant and seeks out the sponsor promptly to assure it is known should be encouraged.
• Although there may be strategic reasons to continue the project, the business case should be reviewed. Perhaps project scope should be reassessed? Is the product sales and marketing group willing to price the product you are developing more competitively? Part of this conversation should occur with the project manager, and part with other significant project stakeholders.
• Relevant information obtained from other executive stakeholders that guide the project response to this situation should be shared with the project manager so that appropriate alternatives can be derived and options presented.
The project sponsor and project manager must both monitor the emerging facts as the project progresses and continually reassess the business case. This scenario again underscores the role of the sponsor as the liaison between the strategic (what are the organization’s priorities and what makes business sense?) and the tactical (what must we do to accomplish this project as defined?). It can be difficult for individuals in an organization to confront changing facts about project viability. Someone in the sales organization may have pushed hard to get this project authorized, and it may have been the best decision with the information available at the time. When the facts on the ground change, the sponsor should lead a reassessment of business value.
Scenario: Unmanaged Scope
Your organization is performing a fixed-price project for an external client. The client is consistently failing to meet their obligations for providing essential information and resources to the project team and it is impacting the schedule and cost of performing the project. Your organization’s sales team (key stakeholder, but not part of your project team) is hesitant to approach the client to address responsibility for client-induced schedule and cost increases. What should the sponsor do?
GAPPS 2.2 Assist the Project Manager with Conflict Management
• Review project plans and client status reports with the project manager. Are client responsibilities clearly articulated? Have previous client failures to meet obligations been documented and shared with the client? Is the change control process being appropriately utilized to request the client take responsibility for the cost and schedule implications of delays that are caused by client action or inaction?
• If the project manager is not appropriately administering the change control process then this deficiency should be corrected.
• If the sales team is interfering with appropriate project administration, this may require executive-level diplomacy to either increase the project budget [decrease project return on investment (ROI)] to accede to the wishes of the sales team, or align the sales team with the change control process. This is an example of the sponsor assisting the project manager with conflict resolution within the organization that may be beyond the project manager’s political capacity.
• If the client is resistant to the change control process, it may require executive-level diplomacy to encourage the client to fulfill their obligations or seek contractual relief. This would be an example of the sponsor assisting the project manager with conflict resolution outside of the organization. The project manager likely does not have the authority to suggest project termination to a client, making the project manager a poor candidate negotiator in this circumstance.
An enterprise may make a business decision to reduce its profit margin on a project being done for a client and absorb client-initiated cost over-runs rather than enforce change control, but this should be a conscious decision made by executives with appropriate authority. Quietly allowing the client to delay the schedule or increase the budget without penalty, both fails to discourage that expensive client behavior and sets the project up to disappoint executives with its financial performance and the client with schedule performance. A sponsor may often be required to educate other parts of his or her organization (project manager, peers, and executive management) regarding the consequences of these choices. The sponsor may also need to make clear to a client organization that both the client and the service provider must uphold their obligations to deliver a quality product or service consistent with the time and costs spelled out in joint agreements. The project manager should enforce change control, but the sponsor may be required to be its ambassador. It is the sponsor’s responsibility to assist the project manager with conflict management.
Scenario: Unmanaged Risk
A 30-month product development project has been underway for 10 months. During a recent status meeting, the project manager informs you that another key supplier will be unable to meet previous commitments. This is the fourth time since project’s inception that one of its suppliers has been unable to meet prior commitments. What should the project sponsor do?
GAPPS 2.3 Provide Feedback on the Performance of the Project Manager
• If this were an isolated incident, you might ask the project manager for ideas about how to minimize the impact on the project. If this appears to be a trend, then there may also be a larger issue emerging. Review the project’s risk management approach and plans. Have any actions been initiated to address this problem now that it has occurred several times? Were there any indications that suppliers were having trouble meeting their obligations? Were the original commitments from the supplier reasonable and entered into willingly?
• Is there evidence that project risk is being actively managed? Failure to effectively manage risk would call into question the skills and experience of the project manager.
This scenario underscores the sponsor’s duty to monitor the project manager’s performance. Sponsors should recognize the difference between good luck and good management as well as bad luck and bad management. Project managers experiencing bad luck should be protected from consequences for outcomes beyond their control. Project managers who are not adequately managing the project should either be remediated or replaced. The sponsor is responsible for monitoring project manager performance and addressing shortcomings.
Role 3. Support the Project
For the final role, we expand the role beyond supporting the project manager to supporting the project and facilitating overall project success. The sponsor provides organizational resources to the project manager to address the needs of the project. Sometimes these resources may be under the sponsor’s control; other times they may be provided by other parts of the organization. The sponsor must assure that promised resources are provided and address resource issues when they arise. The sponsor also monitors the organizational context for changes that might affect the project. Four scenarios offer examples of the behaviors sponsors exhibit while supporting the project.
Scenario: The Impossible Dream
You take over the role of executive sponsor midway through a product development project. Early discussions with the project manager indicate she has significant concerns about the organization’s ability to complete the project successfully within the allotted cost and schedule because sister organizations are not fulfilling their resource commitments. What should the sponsor do?
GAPPS 3.1 Resource Availability is Sustained
• Meet promptly with the project manager to understand her concerns. Is this an emerging issue, or has it been acknowledged previously?
• Determine what actions need to be taken to resolve resource issues. The project manager monitors the resources needed, promised, and provided. The sponsor may need to intervene if these commitments are not being kept.
• Confirm the resources that are necessary. If the current cost and schedule do not appear to be feasible, what would a more credible cost and schedule be? Are there ways to reduce scope to fit within available time and resources? What are the current project priorities? How do various recovery scenarios affect the underlying business case for the project?
• Sponsors must be prepared to act upon the best information available, either changing the project boundaries to make them attainable or canceling a project that no longer makes good business sense.
Effective sponsors must disabuse themselves of the myth that all projects are feasible. The project manager serves as the sponsor’s eyes and ears, monitoring project feasibility as new information becomes available. Sponsors should recognize the difference between a project manager whining, which should be discouraged, and a project manager raising significant risks or concerns, which is a key project manager responsibility to be expected and encouraged. In this scenario, the sponsor’s responsibility is ensuring an accurate understanding of the resources required, confirming that the organization is able and willing to provide those resources, and determining whether the project remains feasible.
Scenario: Stakeholder Management
Your project will be implementing a new accounting system throughout your organization. The project is being phased in to various parts of the organization over time. A steering committee has been formed consisting of executive representatives of each part of the organization. Midway through the effort, the project manager reports that one of the organization’s divisions has not been meeting their schedule targets for preparation and seeks your assistance. The project manager reports that efforts to reach out to the executive representative of that division have been rebuffed repeatedly over the past 4 weeks. What should the sponsor do?
GAPPS 3.2 Cultivate Stakeholder Commitment
• An effective sponsor needs to gather information to determine if this is a project issue that should be addressed by the project manager, or a political issue that should be addressed at an executive level. First steps would be to determine the history and extent of the problem and review the project manager’s efforts thus far. If there is evidence of a significant problem that has been occurring for some time, it might be appropriate mentoring to encourage the project manager to seek your assistance sooner in similar circumstances.
• Are the project manager’s efforts to address the issue thus far sufficient? Are there additional actions you would expect the project manager to perform before escalating the issue to you? If the project manager’s efforts seem reasonable, it may be appropriate for the sponsor to reach out to the executive to address the issue diplomatically. Does the executive and his/her department concur with the priority of the project? Is the organization getting the support needed from the project? Should the schedule be adjusted? Problem solving at the executive level is the responsibility of the sponsor.
This scenario emphasizes the sponsor’s responsibility to cultivate stakeholder commitment. Project managers are often required to seek co-operation and assistance from other parts of the organization. When promised or necessary assistance is not forthcoming, it is reasonable to expect the project manager to escalate appropriately, but there are sometimes political issues that only a sponsor can address. The sponsor’s responsibility is to cultivate and sustain stakeholder commitments. If stakeholders are not honoring their commitments, the sponsor should address the situation.
The project began 6 months ago. Recent status reports indicate the project is not making progress initially expected and it is trending significantly over budget. What should the project sponsor do?
GAPPS 3.3 Ensure Readiness for Project Reviews
• Day-to-day project performance is the purview of the project manager; however, it is incumbent upon the sponsor to monitor project and project manager performance to assure that the underlying causes of schedule, scope, and resource variance are identified and addressed. The sponsor should request a briefing by the project manager of the issues that seem to be driving the schedule and resource challenges being experienced. Is the project manager’s assessment credible? Does the project manager have a path forward that credibly addresses identified issues? Does the project manager need assistance? These questions might trigger a project review to get a second opinion on the viability of existing plans.
• Determine whether the project is still feasible. Were initial assumptions and estimates of cost and schedule too optimistic? Does the business case remain viable? If schedule and cost have changed significantly, it may be appropriate to reconsider the value of the project and perhaps replan with the information now available.
• Assess whether there are specific issues responsible for slowing progress or increasing costs. Are these issues that the project manager can address, or is executive action required to address them?
• Consider initiating a formal project review. It can sometimes be difficult for an organization to dispassionately assess the soundness of a project approach, the performance of a team, and the accuracy of project status. Often the members of the organization most capable of the assessment are part of the project team and may lose perspective or share unstated or unconscious assumptions about the project and the context in which it is being performed. One solution to this potential myopic bias is a project review performed by a team uninvolved in the project. Project reviews typically consist of a team of reviewers meeting with the project team and reviewing project artifacts to render an opinion about the health of the project and raising or emphasizing any issues that appear to be under-reported or underappreciated.
Projects are generally started with the best of intentions. Everyone assumes the business case is reasonable and the schedule and budget are viable. These beliefs are based upon assumptions about the project and the business context that may be optimistic or may change with time and experience. Sponsors must remain vigilant that the realities of the project are generally aligned with the initial assumptions, and prepared to act when data suggest action is warranted. In their “support the project manager” role, the sponsor seeks to understand the reasons for lack of progress before acting, while at the same time mentoring the project manager as to the types of questions they should be asking and prepared to answer. Building trust with the project manager is critical, so the project manager feels comfortable in keeping the sponsor informed regardless of what the message might be. External reviews are a way of validating both project and project manager performance and gaining an independent assessment of project status and viability.
Scenario: Client Deal Requires Accelerated Schedule
Your organization releases new versions of your software product annually to provide new features to customers and correct maintenance issues that have been identified. Six months into sponsoring the next product iteration project, sales informs you that a significant deal with a large new client is dependent upon your team delivering some of the promised new functions 3 months earlier than planned. What should the sponsor do?
GAPPS 3.4 Provide Decisions in a Timely Manner
• An effective sponsor will resist the temptation to agree to the schedule change without consulting the project manager. Although the business case may be compelling, the feasibility, cost, and risk of accelerating the schedule should be carefully assessed and considered before decisions and commitments are made.
• Confer with the project manager about the opportunity. Are there options that might address the emergent request? Can the scope of the release be reduced to meet the schedule? What are the implications to the project of spinning off a separate product to meet the special customer need? Does researching this issue now jeopardize the normal delivery schedule?
• Discuss the customer situation with sales and work with sales executives to involve the executive suite to ensure the organization is making the best decision and is aware of any necessary risks and trade-offs.
This scenario emphasizes the partnership between the project manager and the sponsor. The reconciliation of emerging business opportunities and project obligations requires the sponsor understand the business case and the project manager know the status of the project and what options might be available. Done well, this is an opportunity for joint problem solving at its finest. Any possible strategies that change the nature of existing commitments or increase project costs would likely require vetting with the executive team, but that conversation should be based on the best information available about project status and the implications of any proposed change. It is also essential that the sponsor communicate the problem-solving process and any trade-offs agreed upon to the executive team to avoid the mistaken perception, “we asked for it three months earlier and they gave it to us without any increased cost, loss of functionality, or increased risk.” Few changes of this nature are “free” and the sponsor is the best person on the executive team to promote this fact.
Assessing Executive Sponsorship Characteristics
Figure 5.2 illustrates the third step in the assessment of the organization’s readiness to implement or enhance a sponsorship program. The material in this chapter should help determine whether sponsor roles, responsibilities, and behaviors currently in place are adequate for the organization.
The first step in the assessment of the sponsorship characteristics is to review current sponsor roles and responsibilities. Using the GAPPS criteria in Table 5.1, color-code or shade the roles, responsibilities, and performance criteria that most closely emulate sponsor standards used within the organization. The resulting modified GAPPS chart provides a holistic view when determining gaps, making it easier to see possible voids. To fill the gaps, add, delete, or modify roles, responsibilities, and performance criteria to fit organizational needs.
The current state of sponsorship behaviors and temperaments in the organization can be assessed in two different ways using Table 5.2.
Figure 5.2 Framework for assessing a sponsorship program—focus on roles, responsibilities, and behaviors
Table 5.2 Assessment worksheet for desired behavior and temperaments
1. If an organization currently recognizes the sponsor role, project managers, sponsors, and Project Management Office (PMO) leaders might use the table as a survey regarding observed sponsor behaviors on projects that were active during the past year, completed or not. The scores for each of the indicated characteristics could be averaged and considered the “current state” of sponsorship in the organization. A resulting score is not intended to be statistically valid but rather an indication to promote further discussion.
2. Organizations that are new to sponsorship and have no significant track record might ask the executive team to anonymously score three of their peers using the characteristics of Table 5.2 and then use the average of those scores for the entire team to establish a baseline of the current state of sponsorship in the organization.
Either method will generate a starting point for the training and skills development conversation that will be explored in Chapter 6.
Once perceptions about the current state and gaps are recorded in Tables 5.1 and 5.2, use these data to engage senior management in discussion for determining the health of sponsor roles, responsibilities, and behaviors. Following the discussion, have senior management assess and record their consensus on the organization’s Roles, Responsibilities, and Behaviors element of the spider diagram in Figure 7.1. This score will provide a baseline for improvements, which is discussed in Chapter 8.
1. Why are personal characteristics and behaviors of the person in the sponsor role important?
2. Identify six desired sponsor behaviors and explain why each is important to project success. For each of these behaviors, rate a sponsor you have interacted with from 0 to 2 on his or her performance (0 = Does not do this, 1 = Does this sometimes, 2 = Does this consistently).
3. How might weaknesses in one area counteract strengths in another?
4. Why is sponsorship assessment essential?
5. What approaches or tools might be used for assessment? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches or tools?
6. What aspects of effective sponsorship can be taught and how?
7. What aspects of effective sponsorship cannot be taught? Why?
Considerations
Project Management Office
The PMO is in an excellent position to document the current roles, responsibilities, and behaviors of executive sponsors. Use this opportunity to share what standards exist and showcase good practices not used consistently by all sponsors.
Project Manager
Project managers are also an excellent position to share best practices that have contributed to project success as well as identify areas where sponsorship assistance could be improved. Leverage this knowledge pool and tap project managers to provide input.
The ability to provide input safely, without fear of punishment or criticism, is key. Project managers’ input helps shape sponsor roles, responsibilities, and behaviors that are critical to project success.
1. Lynn Crawford, Terry Cooke-Davies, Brian Hobbs, Les Labuschagne, Kaye Remington, and Ping Chen. 2008b. Situational Sponsorship of Project and Programs, (Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute), p. xi.
2. Vicki James, Ron Rosenhead, and Peter Taylor. 2013. Strategies for Project Sponsorship, (Tysons Corner, VA: Management Concepts), p. 73.
3. Crawford et al. 2008b, p. 75.
4. Timothy J. Kloppenborg and Lawrence J. Laning.. 2012. Strategic Leadership of Portfolio and Project Management, (New York, NY: Business Expert Press), p. 59.
5. Crawford et al. 2008b, p. 69.
6. Crawford et al. 2008b, pp. 47–50 and 69–70.
7. Crawford et al. 2008b, p. 71.
8. Kloppenborg and Laning, 2012, p. 47.
9. Project Management Institute. 2013. A guide to the project management body of knowledge, (PMBOK® guide) (5th ed.), (Newtown Square, PA: Author), p. 553.
10. Crawford et al. 2008b.
11. GAPPS, 2015, p. 7.
12. Ibid.
13. GAPPS, 2015, p.4.