13-16 July 2008 | Marriott | Warsaw, Poland
Governance and Support in the Sponsoring of Projects and
Programs
Dr Lynn Crawford
ESC Lille, France; Bond University, Australia; Human Systems International Ltd, [email protected] Dr Terry Cooke-Davies
Human Systems International Ltd, [email protected] Dr Brian Hobbs
University of Quebec at Montreal, [email protected] Dr Les Labuschagne
University of Johannesburg, South Africa, [email protected] Dr Kaye Remington
University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, [email protected] Dr Ping Chen
Tsinghua University, China, [email protected]
PMI funded research project
• Aims
To address both formal and informal aspects of the sponsorship role and
To provide guidance to organizations and professional organizations in:
Defining the role and responsibilities of the sponsor within corporate and project governance frameworks
Identifying the characteristics of effective performance of the sponsor role
Research Methodology
• Review of literature
Project Management
General Management
• Phase 1: 5 pilot studies
• Phase 2: Cross Regional Qualitative Study
108 interviews
36 projects / programs
9 organisations
5 geographic regions
Australia, China, Europe, North America, South Africa
Profile of Project / Programs
21 Projects 15 Programs
Organizational Assessment of Success of Projects / Programs
Frequency Percent
Successful 16 45
Moderately successful 4 11
Turnaround 7 19
Challenged 9 25
Total 36 100
58% assessed as being of high complexity
Interview Profile
Interviews Total
Sponsors 28
Program Managers 6
Project Managers 37
Team Members 28
Other 9
Total 108
Literature Review: Key Themes
• General agreement on
Formal accountabilities - the governance aspects of the role;
Support functions of the role; and
Behaviors, personal characteristics and
motivation of the individuals performing the
role
Sponsor and Sponsorship Roles
Sponsorship role well recognized and accepted as:
the person or group performing the functions of providing the Project or Program Manager’s authority, making investment decisions and providing direction
But
the term “sponsor” is not universally used
May be
the “owner, financier, client, etc., or their delegate”
(Wideman, 1991)
Vice-President or Director (Chinese case studies)
Multiple and Complex Structures
The governance framework of the permanent organisation
One or several committees or boards
« Steering », approval, tracking, impact….
Manager with important responsibilities
Little availability
Delegation frequent and necessary
A hierarchy of sponsorship
Multiple sponsors
Sponsorship Roles
Executive Team
Steering Committee
Governance Board
Executive Sponsor
Member of the Executive Team
Project / Program Sponsor
May report to Executive Sponsor
May be a Functional or Divisional Manager
From Sponsor to Sponsorship
Sponsor
Individual(s)
Central role in sponsorship
But incomplete respresentation
Sponsorship
Organisational role or function
Includes committees and boards
Aligned with permanent organisation’s
governance framework
The role in standards [1]
“The person or group that provides the
financial resources, in cash or in kind, for the project.”
PMI, 2004 – PMBOK®Guide
“The individual or body for whom the project is undertaken and who is the primary risk taker.
The sponsor owns the business case and is ultimately responsible for the project and for delivering the benefits.”
APM, 2006 – APM Body of Knowledge
The role in standards [2]
Sponsoring Group representing senior managers who are responsible for:
– The investment decision
– Defining the direction of the business
– Ensuring the ongoing overall alignment to the strategic direction of the organization
and
Senior Responsible Owner (SRO): “The single individual with overall responsibility for ensuring that a project or programme meets its objectives and delivers the
project benefits.”
OGC, 2007
Sponsor Research Findings [1]
Sponsorship provides bridge between permanent organization and temporary organization (project or program)
Sponsorship requires experience, knowledge, perspective, credibility and authority
senior position
Senior people are very busy
hierarchy of sponsorship, often complex with multiple sponsors, boards and committee
The Bridge Between
Temporary Organisation Project/programme
Permanent Organisation
Sponsor
Member of the permanent organisation Manager with important responsibilities
Influence, experience, business knowledge, network of contacts
Representative of:
Interests of the permanent organisation
Governance
Interests of the temporary organisation
Support
A Complex Network of Relations
Upward
Parrain
Downward
Horizontally external Horizontally
internal
Project/
programme
Sponsor Research Findings [2]
There are two dimensions to sponsorship: governance and support
In certain situations, one dimension may be dominant
Effective sponsorship depends on personal characteristics and behavior
Effective sponsorship requires:
– Excellent communication skills, including listening ability, – Ability to handle ambiguity,
– Ability to manage self, including time and stress management.
Governance
Role can be structured around six dimensions:
Govern the project
Take accountability for business case and benefits
Give direction and make decisions
Critically review progress
Manage internal and external interfaces
Have sufficient seniority to represent the project to the
organization
Support
Role can be structured around four dimensions:
Have credibility and use networking ability
Provide leadership
Maintain effective relationships
Be available and provide timely support
In Practice
Governance
Govern the project
Applying corporate governance, and ensuring processes are followed
Conducting reviews
“We look to the sponsor to provide the direction, based on their business acumen.” [Project Manager]
“I have been sponsoring a number of reviews on the program to assure its value of delivery.” [Sponsor]
Governance [cont.]
Take accountability for business case and realization of benefits
“Sponsorship with us is not just do the money and you walk away, it really means owning it from idea to implementation and then right through to the point of realising the business benefits.” [Project Manager]
To be effective“…the role must be linked to the outcomes of that project, very tightly linked” [Sponsor]
All Chinese sponsors interviewed were executive sponsors.
They are leaders in their organizations and stated that
accordingly they take leadership accountability for their
projects.
Governance [cont.]
Give direction and make decisions
“… a very effective sponsor [is] also leading from the front, quickly making decisions, set into action, very clear about what he wants, specifies very clearly upfront what he wants.” [Project Manager]
“I think you need to be strong because sometimes, you need to make hard decisions in projects. You might have to stop a project for some reason and people need to understand why that decision’s being made.” [Sponsor]
Governance [cont.]
Critically review progress
The most effective sponsors were those who proactively evaluated the progress of the project and took action
“I found her very insightful. She asked the hard questions, and then provided help in overcoming them.” [Project Manager]
“So we don’t want a sponsor who just goes, ‘Yes, okay, yes, no
problem, good, yeah’, who takes everything on face value. We
want someone who’s going to challenge assumptions, challenge
conclusions, challenge recommendations and then once they’re
convinced we’re going in the right direction then to lead that
charge back into the business.” [Project Manager]
Governance [cont.]
Manage internal and external interfaces
Internal: The role of the sponsor as link between permanent and temporary organizations
External: Management of stakeholders
“Ideally, a sponsor should have the ability to manage stakeholders, and also important is their handling of escalation. The last guy, X, did this very well. He had
seniority and knowledge. Without needing to talk to dozens of people he could give me an answer and quickly hone down an approach. He had the answers at his fingertips.” [Project Manager]
Governance [cont.]
Have sufficient seniority to represent the project / program
“I think an executive sponsor certainly needs to be at senior level, and most of our executive sponsors are at the general manager level. The project sponsors have got to be I guess at a level of
maturity that allows them to confidently represent the project and be able to influence other
stakeholders to achieve the outcomes.”
[Project Manager]
Support
Have credibility and use networking ability
“You need to be able to defend the project at the higher levels within the company, especially when there are limited resources and there are other projects competing for those resources.” [Sponsor]
“To resolve [a particular problem] we escalated it to the executive sponsor and to the sponsor of the other program. Got the right people in the room, had the discussion, got it resolved and now we’re just getting on with our job.” [Project Manager]
Support [cont.]
Provide leadership
“I think the other role is to let them know that I care and I want to hear them and I think leadership is about that, leadership is also about listening to people and being able to know that they can ask you a question and that you can take a look at that, when people stop asking you questions I think that you're a failure.” [Sponsor]
“You’re in crunch mode and things aren’t going so well and
team morale is down, you need somebody there who can
enable or empower you to do something about it.” [Project
Manager]
Support [cont.]
Maintain effective relationships
One sponsor of a successful project reported that he particularly enjoyed “the interactions at the
personal level, working with project manager, working with the customer, and with the business unit; the range of relationships.”
Support [cont.]
Be available and provide timely support
“He was fabulous to be honest, very supportive always gave me the time to listen if I asked to talk to him.” (Project Manager)
“With the last one (sponsor) I chatted to him when I
saw him walking by in the corridor and he was
always interested in hearing how the project was
going from my perspective. This one I simply don’t
see to do that. He’s not interested.” [Project
Manager]
Challenging project And/or Weak PM and/or team
Repeat project Low visibility
Model of Sponsor
Role
Competent project manager and team Strong organizational
support Repeat project
Low visibility
Challenging project Strategic importance
High visibility
Need for Support
Representing the needs of the project
Need for Governance Representing the needs of the organisation/ client
High Low
LowHigh
Competent project manager and team Strategic importance
High visibility
Need for emphasis on governance
High risk exposure for organization if project fails
Persistent under-performance of project
Rapidly-changing market conditions
Corporate governance (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley) has drawn attention to the project
Suspected illegal or non-compliant behaviour in the project
Project is mission-critical
Need to realign project to new strategy or
organizational context
Need for emphasis on support
The organization is failing to provide sufficient resources for the project
Some parts of parent organization are resisting the project’s implementation
Different stakeholders in the parent organization are seeking to impose conflicting requirements on project
The parent organization is failing to provide the project with decisions necessary to maintain planned progress
Project manager is inexperienced or weak
Early signs of difficulty within the project, such as possible shortfall in benefits
Using the model
Feedback from practitioners:
A basis for assessment of the sponsorship needs of programs and projects as guidance for
– Appointment of appropriate sponsors – Assessing sponsor workload
– Sponsors in carrying out their role
A developmental path for sponsors
Challenging project And/or Weak PM and/or team
Repeat project Low visibility
Model of Sponsor
Role
Competent project manager and team Strong organizational
support Repeat project
Low visibility
Challenging project Strategic importance
High visibility
Need for Support
Representing the needs of the project
Need for Governance Representing the needs of the organisation/ client
High Low
LowHigh
Mentor Professor Dumbledore
Guardian
Competent project manager and team Strategic importance
High visibility Competent project manager and team Strategic importance
High visibility
Judge
… and behaviors are crucial
Excellent communication skills
“Communication skills are very important. They need to be able to sell the project if necessary, to push its aims and goals. They need to have passion and commitment to the project. They need to be able to articulate their vision in order to get people involved in it.” [Project Manager]
“..trying to think of the impact of the customer in the marketplace and trying to see through the rhetoric and the emotion to see what they actually want, and whether we can meet those wants. It’s just communication.” [Sponsor]
“…you have to just spend the time talking to people, asking
questions so that you can get a real understanding of what
they’re saying.” [Sponsor]
Behaviors
Ability to handle ambiguity
“I think I’m good at admitting when things have changed, but some people tend to think that it’s a criticism of their past decisions. Perhaps they think that changing their minds is like admitting they were wrong, when it’s simply that the environment has changed.” [Sponsor]
Behaviors [cont.]
Ability to manage self
“Like I was sponsoring three big projects so how much time do I devote to one versus the other? It’s a balancing act plus the other things you have to do is business as usual in your day job.” [Sponsor]
“They need to be approachable, and they don’t get involved in the detail. They don’t need the detail.
They’re an executive sponsor so they need an executive summary so they can make an executive decision and get it over and done with in minutes.
They’re pragmatic.” [Project Manager]
In conclusion
“It’s very difficult being a project sponsor, a bit removed from the detail to really understand what people were telling you. You know, that’s probably going to be an issue for any project sponsor to be honest, but you have to just spend the time talking to people, asking questions so that you can get a real understanding of what they’re saying and that’s a big challenge for project sponsors when you’ve got so many other things to do..” [Sponsor]
Governance and Support in the Sponsoring of Projects and
Programs
Dr Lynn Crawford
ESC Lille, France; Bond University, Australia; Human Systems International Ltd, [email protected] Dr Terry Cooke-Davies
Human Systems International Ltd, [email protected] Dr Brian Hobbs
University of Quebec at Montreal, [email protected] Dr Les Labuschagne
University of Johannesburg, South Africa, [email protected] Dr Kaye Remington
University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, [email protected] Dr Ping Chen
Tsinghua University, China, [email protected]
