Powerful Allies: The Relationship Between Sponsors and Project Managers

  Cost Management   Stakeholder Management   PM Network  

Think of projects as an hourglass.

“At the neck of the hourglass sits the project sponsor and project manager,” says David West, senior technical director, WSP UK, a construction, engineering and environmental management consultancy in Swindon, England. In many cases, “the project manager faces the bottom half of the organization, orchestrating the input of all consultants, suppliers and contractors. The project sponsor faces the upper half of the hourglass, dealing with all relevant departments of the client organization and associated stakeholders. The project sponsor is responsible for the project business case, whereas the project manager is usually responsible for

delivering a project with defined outputs to a timescale and budget.” Together they bring the project to a successful close and everyone lives happily ever after, right?

If only it were that simple. Not every sponsor is created equal. And not every project manager knows how to most advantageously work with a sponsor.

The first step to building an effective relationship between a project sponsor and project manager is to understand where one job ends and the other begins.

The sponsor is there to provide the financial resources for the project and champion it when it’s first conceived. That means serving as a spokesperson to higher management to get …

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