Published
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the performance of the project sponsor is one of the handful of key factors that enable (or prevent) project success. At the same time, project managers, PMOs and others roles and functions in the project organization are often to be heard complaining that they struggle to get their sponsor’s attention, or to get him or her to engage with the information they are providing to them, or to provide the requisite support that the project needs.
Acknowledging the significance of the sponsor role is one thing. How can you know whether he or she is fulfilling it successfully and, indeed what does this mean in terms of what the sponsor needs to do?
Remarkably, few organizations seem to have attempted to answer this question with the diligence it deserves. Which leaves the sponsor unsure of exactly what it is that is being asked of them – particularly if their sponsorship role is a secondary gig alongside their main functional responsibilities. It also leaves those in the project organization uncertain of what they should expect of the sponsor or exactly how to engage with them.
The Network Rail approach has been to develop a cohort of permanent, professional sponsors. This is not necessarily something that other organizations would wish to do or indeed would have the resources to do, but which reflects the nature of Network Rail’s work, which is essentially ALL about the continual delivery of a steady river of projects and programmes.
The second thing they have done, which is the subject of a recent Masterclass interview with Baney Young, Head of Sponsorship for Network Rail, is to map and build a landscape for the sponsorship/governance of the organization. In doing so, they have:
- assured the activities of the sponsor match what is required for their projects and programmes
- provided the project sponsors with a visual guide to their role One that they can use as a personal development tool and as a guide to specific competences for particular elements within the project delivery process
- signalled to the project delivery teams what they can and should expect of their sponsors
- made it possible to identify gaps in the governance framework as well as in the sponsor competency framework
- provided a language and a lens to identify how and where a particular sponsor, or the sponsorship network as a whole, needs to raise their game
Making the landscape digital – rather than producing a Handbook for Sponsors – makes it far easier to maintain and keep up to date but also allows sponsors to dip in and out and understand particular responsibilities related to specific stages within the project lifecycle (for example), rather than being required to hold the whole body of knowledge in their heads.
The landscape does look devilishly complicated, which reflects the nature of modern, major engineering projects. This may give other organizations pause for thought before embarking on something similar. On the other hand, once you see the complexity of the role of the sponsor and, knowing their importance in the equation that leads to project success, maybe you should be wondering whether you can continue to leave the success of your own project sponsorship function entirely down to the intuition, experience and personality of the people you have available.
In response to the title of this blog, ask yourself:
- Do you know what good means in the context of project sponsorship?
- Can you express it in terms of detailed skills and competencies?
- Do your project sponsors know what this means?
If the answer to any of these questions is ‘No’, then the only answer you can give to the question: “How do you know if your project sponsors are any good?” is ‘We don’t!”
Further insights from Network Rail
Susan Millington, Senior Programme Manager, tells the story of how she and her colleagues designed and set up the Network Rail Lessons Learned process and system. Starting from the initial business case right through to the (soft) launch and beyond, she shares her experience. The insights she has gathered cover issues such as starting small but with some clear early guidelines; securing executive support and a sponsor to champion the programme; embedding the process firmly in the business; as well as the obstacles – lack of time and resources. The result is a masterclass on how to manage an agile, business change project that is delivering clear benefits.
The Project Sponsorship Network
The Project Sponsorship Network, which is hosted and facilitated by the Major Projects Association provides a peer-to-peer community for sponsors across industries to share knowledge, expertise and learn and develop skills for a role which has no formal career path.
The Network meets several times a year, either virtually or physically, to listen to and learn from the stories of sponsors and work together to build shared capability.