I often get tripped up by the PMI definition of 'sponsor'. In my world of research and analysis consulting for government agencies, the government (and ultimately the taxpayer) is our customer. We refer to our direct government counterpart as our project sponsor. We refer to internal senior business-oriented stakeholders as portfolio managers. The PMI definition of 'sponsor' seems to align more with how we view our internal business managers; nevertheless, our current use of the term sponsor puts it squarely on an external person. I'm curious if anyone else has run into this or whether the term is used more flexibly than the PMI definition suggests. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
I wouldn’t worry too much about the name and would focus on the actual responsibilities the role undertakes. If the responsibilities align more with a sponsor, then the person or group are acting as sponsor(s). Saving Changes...
Sponsor isn't necessarily an internal or external role. The main definition of a sponsor is a stakeholder that provides resources to the project, monitoring it in a strategic manner. Said this, both your internal business managers, and external government counterpart can be named "sponsors". Saving Changes...
You can have an internal & external sponsor for a given project. For example, if you are a vendor, your client likely has a sponsor for the overall project and you may have a sponsor inside your organization for your company's portion of the project scope.
Three common attributes of sponsors are:
1. They are the conduit for funding - either they have authority over it themselves OR they have influence over the folks who are holding the purse strings to get them to provide the required funding
2. They are the primary champion for the project
3. They are the primary point of escalation for the PM when an action, issue or decision needs senior leadership attention
Kiron Saving Changes...
Latha Thamma reddiSr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC TechnologyMckinney, Tx, United States
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