Project sponsors are more than just a project’s main cheerleader. They might have the largest stake in the project’s success. Let’s re-examine what project sponsors do, what their roles and responsibilities are--and how PMs can leverage them to promote project success.
Successful business execution is dependent upon having timely and accurate financial information. But too often, little thought is put into how to present the data in a meaningful way. From a project or portfolio perspective, what does a C-Level executive expect to see from the PMO for actionable decision-making?
For most IT investments, business cases are either missing or unbelievable. In the first of a series of articles, John Finneran explains what has gone wrong and outlines how to fix the business case.
You didn't go into project management in order to sell. But like it or not, getting buy-in to your business case requires a sales process of sorts. But approached effectively, it can be a far less painful process than you might imagine.
To try to reduce the potential for abuse in the project justification stage, organizations should consider a number of different steps. Justification isn't about selling, and business cases are not sales presentations...ever!
It is difficult for project managers to know, at times, who our customer actually is. Is someone a customer just because they are a stakeholder? Or, worse, is someone a customer just because they want to have a say in what your project does and how it is delivered? One hopes--if only for our sanity--that this isn't the case.
Like it or not, getting funding for a project goes beyond presenting the numbers and hoping that they speak for themselves. Getting approval for projects requires a superior business case complete with persuasive arguments as to why the project in question deserves funding and support amongst all the other competing requests for resources.
It scares this writer how many project managers believe that projects start with the planning phase. It scares him even more that their employers often agree.The project starts during the justification phase of the initiative, and the project manager needs to be a part of that process.
The purpose of the project proposal template is the first step to gain approval of a project moving forward. Similar to a project charter, it provides the initiator of the project with an avenue to document the purpose of the project, the objectives and the basic information needed to see the project approved through to the planning stage.
The purpose of this document is to quantitatively justify the project. For smaller projects, the business case may be no more than 1-2 pages in length. For larger, more complex projects, the business case may be much larger and contain far more detail.
Finding sponsors to back your project is an art. Make a compelling case for the project to gain sponsor support when you are pitching your business case to executive management. Here is an example of a brief, direct project concept designed to lure sponsors into your camp.
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