Assessing How Executive Sponsors Influence Project Success - Report

This report delves into the critical role of executive sponsors in project success, analyzing their influence across various project stages. The report begins with an introduction to executive sponsorship and its importance in project management, emphasizing the sponsors' responsibilities in providing leadership, realizing benefits, and facilitating communication. Key findings from a case study on sponsor behavior and project success are presented, highlighting the significance of trust-building, clear objectives, stakeholder engagement, and continuous communication throughout the initiation, planning, execution, and closure stages. The report then applies these learnings to a real-world software development project, illustrating how active sponsor involvement could have prevented project derailment. The analysis underscores the necessity of sponsors setting clear goals, fostering communication, and identifying lessons learned to ensure projects align with organizational vision and achieve desired outcomes. The report concludes by emphasizing the overall importance of active executive sponsor involvement in project management.

Running Head: HOW EXECUTIVE SPONSORS INFLUENCE PROJECT SUCCESS
How Executive Sponsors Influence Project Success
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HOW EXECUTIVE SPONSORS INFLUENCE PROJECT SUCCESS
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Introduction
The current paper is concerned with assessing the aspects of the case “How Executive
Sponsors Influence Project Success”. The sponsors are an integral part of any project
management and their level of contribution is likely to make or break the project progress.
Executive sponsors are the individuals at the senior positions within an organization and is
given responsibility for the project success. The sponsors within the project are generally
responsible for variety of aspects. Some of the responsibilities of the project sponsors are
providing leadership on cultural and value aspects, focusing on realizing benefits, providing
feedback, and others (Davis, 2014). Some of the areas are handled by project sponsor in
combination with the input from project managers such as timely decision making,
developing frameworks for the decision making, establishing trust, managing relationships,
and others (Bryde, 2008). Moreover, the project sponsors engage with the stakeholders, build
client relationships, engage in handling stakeholder communications, and handle other such
aspects. The next chapter on Key Learning presents the aspects that have been learned from
the case which is followed by the next chapter on application of those learning on a real
problem solving. In the end, a conclusive remark has been given based on the overall study.
Key Learning
The case on “How Executive Sponsors Influence Project Success” undertook certain field
study to understand the sponsor behavior and project success. It has been found that in most
of the cases the planning and executing overlaps and is iterative in nature. Moreover, it has
been stated that conventionally there are three criteria that speaks of project success namely,
cost, schedule and performance. However, some of the researches have led to the
understanding that the important success factors are customer impact, meeting agreements,
and benefits gained by the company (Kloppenborg, & Tesch, 2017). The customer impact is
associated with the meeting of needs. This requires designing deliverables that are closely or
directly associated with the need of the customers for whom the project is being designed.
Completing the project within the given duration, defined budget, and as per the requirements
provided is another success factor. The assessment of the case led to the understanding that
more than 1000 respondents were analysed to identify the behaviors of the sponsors that are
important for the project success at each stage. The sub-sections below briefly shows the
learning gained regarding each of the stages:
Initiation Stage
It has been understood that during this stage the project sponsors and the managers should
engage more often informally to ensure that the trust among them is built. Moreover, it is
important that the clear goals and objectives should be defined. If the expectation about the
performance will not be clear then it is less likely that the project will stand on expectation of
anybody. Another important aspect is the selection of a right project manager and then
providing useful mentorship (Kantolahti, 2016). This helps the project manager understand
the bigger picture and set the priorities. The establishment of priorities allow project
managers understand what to be done first.
Plan Stage
Here, the executive sponsors engage in activities that results in plan development and builds
relationship with the stakeholders. The responsibilities of planning is of project manager,

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however the sponsors are required to ensure that the plan is appropriately aligned with the
vision of the organization (Kloppenborg, & Tesch, 2017). There are various aspects that are
considered by the executive sponsors such as the schedule, risk management, budget, and
others. It is the duty of the sponsors that they build good relationship with the stakeholders as
it directly impacts the project success. A good communication between the project team and
the stakeholders leads to appreciable product development.
Execution Stage
This stage is concerned with the project sponsors’ three behavioral aspects, namely,
establishing appropriate communication, maintaining relationship and, ensuring quality. The
presence of continuous communication ensures that the elimination of communication among
the stakeholders (Helm & Remington, 2005). Moreover, the relationship among the project
team and members is the key to project success (Kloppenborg, & Tesch, 2017). The sponsors
are required to gain the feedback and act on it. The quality management in terms of product
and process can be ensured by the project sponsor by using proven methods of risk
monitoring and control, issue escalation, and taking actions on time.
Closure Stage
This stage is concerned with two sponsor behavior, namely, identification and capture of
lessons learned, and realization of capabilities and benefits. It is the responsibility of the
sponsors that the proper documentation of the lessons from the project should be done. This
will help in future application of the lessons on other projects (Kloppenborg, & Tesch, 2017).
Moreover, instead of wasting the learning gained from the project activities, the sponsors
should ensure to identify the way new learning can be used to benefit the progress of the
organization.
These were the learning gained from the case. The next chapter is the application of these
learning on the real life problem solving. The case showcases the personal experience of the
author with one of the projects and details on how the project could have been improved
relying on the findings discussed above.
Real Problem Solving
The project is related to the software development project where the author’s known
associate was working. The project took off well but never reached the final stage as it was
dropped in between due to number of challenges. The project was to install CRM software
within an organization. The organization was handling its customers using the offline paper
based activities and was relying on computer and internet to send and receive mails. In some
cases, the customers’ data were sent to and forth on spread-sheets. The goal was to
implement the CRM software and automate most of the customer handling procedures. This
could have led to the improvement in the employee efficiency and faster operational
activities. The organization outsourced the software implementation activity and deputed one
individual as project sponsor to look-after. The outsourced company sent its project manager
along with few team members to implement the software. The initial meeting among the
project sponsor, manager and the team went well and project took off. The project sponsor
rarely engaged in meetings afterward or the project considering project manager will take
care of all the issues. However, after completing the middle phase of the project
implementation, it was realized that the software implementation is not heading towards what

HOW EXECUTIVE SPONSORS INFLUENCE PROJECT SUCCESS
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is expected by the organization. The project was running slow and off budget. Finally, it was
closed for the time being.
The above case seems to be the right situation where the active involvement of project
sponsor could have saved the organization from the disaster. Initially, the project sponsor
could have engaged formally with the project manager to clearly make him understand the
goals of the organization which was to fast-track the operational procedures in handling or
managing the customers. Moreover, there were no priorities set in this project. The project
manager began as it pleased to him. Instead of handling the core implementation activity, the
project manager took off the project by beginning from the supply chain which was not as
important as working on the internal operation of the organization (Helm & Remington,
2005). Here the project sponsor could have helped him understand the most important aspects
of the implementation that should be completed first.
Apart from that, the brief interaction between the project sponsor and the manager led to the
lack of understanding in project manager about the vision of the organization. This can also
be attributed for the derailment of the project focus. The project manager was not sure where
to take the project as one CRM package contains different modules and not every module
suits every company. It requires customization as per the requirement of the organization.
Therefore, the project manager had the idea about where the project should head, then he
might have taken some consultancy. However, in this case, he was fulfilling his obligation
and in not engaging in the activities that can directly help the organization.
There was lack of communication among the stakeholders of the project such as the
employees, management, and project team. The sponsor rarely tried to understand the need of
the employees regarding the new software and communicating the same to the project
manager. This led to the loophole where project manager was not aware of the appropriate
requirements. Moreover, there were no feedback mechanisms that could allow the employees
to give feedback as required (Davis, 2014). This could have been improved if the project
sponsor could have engaged in continuous discussion with the project manager and
considered feedback from the employees regarding the new software (Bryde, 2008). There is
no doubt that these challenges could have been improved and project could have been saved
from major setback if the sponsor had acted effectively.
Conclusion
Considering the overall discussion, it can be stated that it is important for the project sponsor
to stay active for the entire project management process. The sponsor has to engage in key
behaviors at each project stage to ensure that the project is moving as required for the
organization and is not derailing to something else. The generic orientation to leave
everything on the project manager is likely to result in poor project output in the end. The
project sponsors are required to set goals for the project aligned with the organization’s
vision, help manager plan right, improve communication, and identify lessons learned. These
aspects are more likely to help the project to become a success.

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References
Bryde, D. (2008). Perceptions of the impact of project sponsorship practices on project
success. International Journal of Project Management, 26(8), 800-809.
Davis, K. (2014). Different stakeholder groups and their perceptions of project
success. International Journal of Project Management, 32(2), 189-201.
Helm, J., & Remington, K. (2005). Effective project sponsorship: An evaluation of the role of
the executive sponsor in complex infrastructure projects by senior project managers. Project
Management Institute.
Kantolahti, T. (2016). Sponsor behaviour and impacts in public sector project
management. Injury Prevention, 22(Suppl 2), A211.1-A211.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2016-042156.588
Kloppenborg, T., & Tesch, D. (2017). How Executive Sponsors Influence Project
Success. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved 19 March 2017, from
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-executive-sponsors-influence-project-success/