I'm a relatively new PM (at least in terms of my title), and am running into challenges relative to goal clarity and project scope. I think this is partly due to project organization/design: As team leader, I'm reporting to four sponsors! Is this "normal?" Wouldn't it make more sense if I reported to one sponsor, who reported to a multi-person steering committee? Thanks for your feedback:-) Saving Changes...
A few years ago we established a steering committee to guide administrative IT systems project prioritization at our university, and it has worked quite well. Instead of competition among sponsors we have seen a switch to collaboration among diverse units and a much clearer definition of what our institutional priorities really should be. An effective steering committee requires the support of executive management, and once that has been acquired the committee takes on a level of authority and responsibility that is missing when dealing with individual sponsors. Each major initiative must have a sponsor within our committee, but it is a single point of contact for communication to the committee and coordination with ITS staff working on the project. In some cases large-scale projects that will require significant additional funding are endorsed by the steering committee and sent on to the Executive Budget Committee. Our steering committee has made it much easier for me to manage my limited ITS resources and has eliminated the stress of dealing with competing interests for our services. Saving Changes...
Simple answer to this one, and you have already picked it. It is plain crazy to have four sponsors. More, it is a sign of lazy corporate project governance, of which you are a reluctant victim.
Select the key sponsor, principally the one with most direct interest in the deliverable, probably will own the deliverable in the organisation post-project, and who has most financial influence.
Definitely, go for a steering committee chaired by the sponsor not you (otherwise you are back at the start of this tricky situation), and develop a charter or roles and responsibilities for you, the sponsor and steering committee members.
Basic Rule: Be quite demanding, and demand sensible input from the Steering Committee. If you would like to talk about this more, give me an email. I have done it numerous times. Saving Changes...
