Indifferent project ‘sponsor’

I was perusing the latest copy of Project Management Institute’s monthly journal PM Network (Jan-2013) and ran across Pique Performance pg. 23 “How do you excite an indifferent project sponsor?”.   There were four respondents to this question all of whom I will assume are very well experienced in the project management profession and qualified to offer an onion.

What struck me was the opening paragraph of the first three respondents:

1. “I show the relevancy of the project and how it will help the sponsor.  People normally think that a sponsor is motivated for him or herself.  Not always.”
2. “Sponsors don’t always realize the importance of the project.  To get them excited, show how the project is good for the company.”
3. “I sell the project from the very beginning to get the stakeholder excited.  The sponsor must feel that he or she will gain something valuable as a result of the project.”

The fourth opened with:

“You shouldn’t have to excite the project sponsor if the right sponsor was chosen in the first place.  The sponsor should be supportive and see the value in the project.”

Resources

First a definition of sponsor from PMI’s PMBOK 5^th edition:

Sec. 2.2.1 Pg. 32

• Sponsor.  A sponsor is the person or group who provides resources and support for the project and is accountable for enabling success.  The sponsor may be external or internal to the project manager’s organization.  From initial conception through project closure, the sponsor promotes the project.  This includes serving as spokesperson to higher levels of management to gather support throughout the organization and promoting the benefits the project brings.  The sponsor leads the project through the initiating processes until formally authorized, and plays a significant role in the development of the initial scope and charter.

What’s the Problem?

While this is only a portion of the PMBOK description it provides the points I want to make.  What I have learned from many years in the profession is that if you are assigned a project that has a sponsor who seems non-engaged you have no project.  If the project sponsor needs to be shown the value of the project I really wonder how the project and sponsor got together in the first place?  While I am certain the first three respondents to this question were sincere, it appears from their answers that they are used to having to promote a project to the organization.  Or that the respondents are confusing ‘(all other) stakeholders’ with ‘project sponsor’.

What I think should happen

What I have learned, sometimes painfully over my career, is that for project success, support and cheerleading for a project must come from the organizational executive staff.  This means that the sponsor already has a vision of the ‘value’ of the project and understands what the project needs to deliver to the organization.  If you have a project in need of an engaged sponsor you have an organization that is immature in the concept of professional project management.