Training for Business Owners and Sponsors

Governance

Thomas Zvolensky IT Project & Portfolio Mgr.| inVentive Health Budd Lake, Nj, United States

The practice of project management and project governance is relatively immature at my employer. Many Business Owners and Sponsors are not very knowledgeable about their roles and responsibilities (despite my coaching and encouragement). Does anybody know of any formal training programs, webinars or written materials that can be employed to help them improve and be more effective? TIA

Posted: Apr 7, 2016 2:51 PM

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Thomas Walenta Global Project Economy Expert Hackenheim, Germany

Apr 13, 2016 11:32 AM

Replying to Thomas Zvolensky

...

When the message comes from a PM, the results can be mixed.

Interestingly, enough Michael van der Molen's April 11 article "Don’t Blame the Project Sponsor! How to Advance Project Sponsorship in Organizations ("http://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/...-Organizations) very well. Most sponsors are focused on their short-term operational concerns and give projects short shrift. PMs have very little influence changing this mindset. If projects are key to future benefits, senior management needs to change that mindset by aligning their performance expectations accordingly. PMs can't do it alone.

Tom,

good article, and I agree don't blame the sponsor - if you do not tell them what they are supposed to do.

I see 2 ways to tell them, and #2 should always apply

1. top-down like Chad's PM101 which requires that the organization (CEO) sees a problem - the result of that is probably that some sponsors get the message and others do not care.

2. bottom-up by each and every PM reminding him of JFK famous words, slightly adapted 'don't ask what your organization can do for you, ask what you can do for your organization'.
Stakeholder management is a key capability of a PM and the first needed.
In most projects, the sponsor is a prio 1 stakeholder.
If the PM meets with the sponsor (and he should asap and regularly), he can and must clarify his own role and that of the sponsor. The PM can then see gaps in what the sponsors can do/wants to do and plan for closing them. He can engage with sponsor, which for me means change his attitude.

Does the PM have the power from the organization to do so? Most probably not. But do not despair, managing without authority (MWA) can be learned. BTW taking on volunteer work is an excellent practice for MWA.

In a nutshell: The PM is in charge to form his sponsor.

(and thanks for changing your name)

Posted: Apr 13, 2016 12:41 PM

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