Don’t Blame the Project Sponsor! How to Advance Project Sponsorship in Organizations

  Business Case   Governance   Strategy   Knowledge Shelf  

Abstract
In recent years, a lot has been written about project sponsorship. Authors agree that effective project sponsorship strongly contributes to project success, and that in many organizations this role is still poorly developed. What makes it such a challenge to advance this role? And what are the basic elements of a successful approach?

Introduction
When discussing project sponsorship, most authors focus on defining the project sponsor duties and behavior, implicitly or explicitly assuming that ineffective project sponsorship is caused by “malfunctioning project sponsors” and that, if they could just be taught to pick up their role, the issue would be solved. However, project sponsors are often business managers who perform their project sponsor role on behalf of an organization and the way they perform should be seen in this context: They are part of a whole and have good reason to behave the way they do. This “malfunctioning project sponsor” approach is often ineffective, and not just because it isolates one factor instead of addressing the whole—it can also be counterproductive. Feeling blamed for being the cause of project failure can cause unnecessary resistance among business managers. In the end, the challenge is to close the gap between line management and projects and to strengthen project direction from a business perspective, …

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