Kimberly Wiefling had an article today on Projects@Work (www.projectsatwork.com) giving us a taste of some hard-learned lessons when dealing with project sponsors.
I’ve always loved Kimberly’s sense of humor and highly recommend just about anything she’s written. This is a great example of education a la entertainment. Check out her book too, you can buy it from the PMStudent book store by clicking on the image to the left.
In short, her exploits yield the following lessons learned with regards to project sponsors:
- Don’t assume who has decision power. Be clear on who the real sponsor is.
- Don’t assume your sponsor wanted this project. If their boss mandated them to sponsor the project, it’s going to be tough. In Kimberly’s example, ideas for projects were generated by executives, and the CEO made the decision of what to implement. The ideas for improving one division came from a different division, etc. That means the sponsors were put in charge of a project they didn’t come up with….can you say sabotage?
- Don’t assume your sponsor knows what their role should be. Insist on coaching the sponsor and letting them know exactly what support the project will be asking from them.
Great article Kimberly!
This point speaks to the need for
(1) commitment from top management and
(2) commitment from everyone else in the organization.
Quality is everyone’s job, and if any implementation is not total, it will not fulfill its full potential.
In project management, I see this point alluding to executive formation and support of a company-wide Project Management Office. That PMO must be the central source of all project management knowledge, under continuous development by the practitioners of project management. Lessons learned and any potential improvements to the project management methodology used by all PM’s in the company should be evaluated, tested, and implemented as a positive change.
Communication channels and documentation management must be in place so that everyone is completely and totally aware of any changes and how it impacts the way they are to run projects. Feedback mechanisms must be in place to allow those same project managers to make suggestions to initiate their own changes to the methodology.
This also speaks to the necessity for everyone who works on projects to have some knowledge of the methodology. They should at least be familiar with the methodology from an executive summary point of view. They should understand how to use some of the tools and techniques that may be applicable to their contributions on projects.
