ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Yogi Schulz and Jocelyn Lapointe [1]
Canada & USA
Are you new to the project sponsor role or want to improve? Here’s some practical guidance from our new book: A Project Sponsor’s Warp-Speed Guide – Improving Project Performance.
Too often, we’ve observed that project sponsors:
- Do not understand this role.
- Are unsure about what others expect.
- Have little or no direct experience with the project subject and mistakenly assume that such a background is essential.
- Are too embarrassed to ask for help.
- Receive no guidance from their organization.
As a result, project sponsors too often retreat into a cursory figurehead or ignore the role to the detriment of the project. Those outcomes don’t help anyone.
Executives often don’t understand how valuable performing this project sponsor role can be to:
- Reducing the risk of a disappointing project outcome.
- Identifying areas where your intervention is critical to project success.
- Supporting your project manager and the team better.
- Avoiding embarrassing project failure.
Quickly assess your project
Start by completing the warp-speed project assessment at this link. In a few minutes, you will understand the topics that need more attention to reduce the project’s shortcomings and increase its likelihood of success. The short project assessment contains the most common topics that can contribute to either project success or failure.
Determine your actions to address shortcomings
Now, you’ve determined the topics that need some attention. Find those sections in the book. They provide collaborative actions you can take as a project sponsor to reduce risk and improve your project’s performance.
Here are a few example topics from the book that can contribute to either project success or failure with actions to correct a high-risk situation. For each topic, there are two brief descriptions to help you determine if the topic needs more attention. Where there’s a risk of disappointment, there are recommended actions to reduce risk and increase the likelihood of project success.
More…
To read entire article, click here
How to cite this article: Schulz, Y. and Lapointe, J. (2024). Want to be a more effective project sponsor? Advisory article, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue I, January. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/pmwj137-Jan2024-Schulz-Lapointe-Want-to-be-a-more-effective-project-sponsor.pdf
About the Authors
Yogi Schulz
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Yogi Schulz has over 40 years of Information Technology experience in various industries. Yogi works extensively in the petroleum industry to select and implement financial, production revenue accounting, land & contracts and geotechnical systems. He manages projects that arise from changes in business requirements, from the need to leverage technology opportunities and from mergers. His specialties include IT strategy, web strategy and systems project management.
Mr. Schulz regularly speaks to industry groups and writes a regular column for IT World Canada and for Engineering.com. He has written for Microsoft.com and the Calgary Herald. His writing focuses on project management and IT developments of interest to management. Mr. Schulz served as a member of the Board of Directors of the PPDM Association for twenty years until 2015. Learn more at https://www.corvelle.com/. He can be contacted at yogischulz@corvelle.com
His new book, co-authored by Jocelyn Schulz Lapointe, is “A Project Sponsor’s Warp-Speed Guide: Improving Project Performance.”
Jocelyn Lapointe
Allen, Texas, USA
Jocelyn Lapointe is a health care project manager in Texas for a large university hospital system. Jocelyn holds a Bachelor of Music (B. Mus) degree from the University of Lethbridge and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Brigham Young University. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Jocelyn lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, Trevor, and their two children.
Her new book, co-authored by Yogi Schulz, is “A Project Sponsor’s Warp-Speed Guide: Improving Project Performance.”
[1] The authors are co-authors of the recently published book A Project Sponsor’s Warp-Speed Guide – Improving Project Performance, available from Amazon at this link.
