The project sponsor will be the primary point of escalation in any project. There can be project structures where Project Managers reports into program managers and program managers into portfolio managers, but these structures are few and far between and in the majority cases the project sponsor is your escalation point. The reason for this can be that Project Managers end up doing the job of program managers and vice versa and portfolio managers only exist in very large vendor-based structures whereby the company is large and has a well-established product and a client base. Therefore, firming a close working relationship with the project sponsor is essential. The project sponsor has to be relied on to intervene when difficult decisions need to be made and / or the Project Manager needs support. In vendor / client projects the sponsor can sometimes act as the communications buffer between both parties and dual job as customer relationship manager. Some points are noted below on how to utilise project sponsors for the benefit of project delivery.

• Project sponsor will be your direct reporting line.

• Project sponsor will be your primary escalation point.

• You have to build a good working relationship and appreciate each other’s personalities and working traits.

• If you need to tweak your working style, they do but don’t compromise your ability to deliver the project.

• Provide project sponsors with status updates & project soundbites as necessary.

• A mixture of formal & informal communications is good.

• If a proactive approach is needed to manage the relationship then don’t be afraid to put regular meetings in the diaries or doorstep the project sponsor if onsite.

• Without a solid & comfortable working relationship then accurate communications & project flow can be jeopardized and what can start out as a low-level risk can morph into a live issue.

• If you feel the relationship is deteriorating or / and communication lines are not what they should be then bring the relationship down to the basic, crisp & clear updates and escalate any risks or problems that you believe are affecting project delivery.

• Whilst the relationship with the sponsor is important, having a good relationship with operational stakeholders such as Business Analysts, system engineers, end users, testing manager, training managers etc is critical to successful project delivery.

• During the kick off session all primary stakeholders should be identified and listed.

• A RACI matrix can help too.

• You need to make sure the Business Analysts understands what requirements need to be captured & also process flows.

• You need to manage the configuration & build phase with system engineers.

• You need to have testing managers assigned to manage the test cases, scripts and different testing stages from static to UAT.

• You need to manage any training needed to end users and training resources to execute such training.

• You need to manage deployments & go lives, transitions from project to BAU and all that this entails.

• To manage the above, working relationships need to be formed that will facilitate the necessary tasks being completed.

• 1:1 weekly session or stand ups as deemed appropriate will help in this regard.

• Do not let relationships drift or assume a stakeholder is executing a task, manage and make sure all is in order.

• You do not want any surprises happening at the last minute.

• Good working relationships formed at the initiation stage of a project with all the key stakeholders will alleviate (not eliminate) failures & errors and make the running of a project smoother.