What is a Project Sponsor? Roles and Responsibilities

Every project starts with the strong leadership of a project sponsor who handles most parts of the project. These individuals are key stakeholders, either working from within the organization or outside as clients. These individuals are expected to know a lot of skills and handle a number of abilities for the success of a project. 

These individuals are also known to improve the success of a project by making sharp decisions and utilizing the abilities of a team in a balanced way. It is more necessary to utilize the abilities of a person effectively rather than instructing them. 

With additional insights, we are going to learn more about the roles, responsibilities, and associated details of project sponsors. 

Who Can You Call a Project Sponsor?

A project sponsor is a person or a group of people directly linked to the success rate of a project. These people or individuals are generally senior managers or resource heads who can provide key guidance. Therefore, from such an explanation, I think it is clear to you that they are not involved in day-to-day responsibilities. However, they do have some interest in the success rate of the project. 

Moreover, such individuals or group members jointly assigned to such roles act as a strategic bridge that helps communicate the project’s continuation with the senior management. These people or individuals are also involved with advocating the project's goal with stakeholders and ensuring adequate availability of resources. 

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Identifying the Key Roles of a Project Sponsor

There are dual project sponsor roles, which help support the organization in guiding the project and supporting the important activities needed for project execution. At the senior levels, they are known to validate the project’s status and bring in more expertise to execute the project. On the other hand, for the performing team, these individuals are known to help in completing the project on time. 

They are also known to oversee the project’s direction, address potential barriers, and maintain an alignment between the project and the organization’s goals. Some of the key aspects of the project sponsor’s roles are as follows: 

• Start securing resources for the team, which involves everything starting from financial to technical requirements. 

• Maintain a proper collaboration with not only internal but external stakeholders too. 

• A project sponsor needs to make teams comply with all the requirements of the project and maintain an ideal deadline. 

• Identify potential roadblocks and take actions to prevent any bottlenecks during project running. 

• Acts as the decision-maker who are able to handle critical issues and escalate them when it is beyond the project manager’s authority. 

With such assigned project sponsor roles, I can assure you that most of the roadblocks are removed and you can deliver the project flawlessly. Even if there are some roadblocks, the project sponsors can identify and mitigate them during the starting phase only. 

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Common Responsibilities a Project Sponsor Handles Daily

As per my discussion, I hope you have understood the roles they play; however, they have many responsibilities as well. Some of the important project sponsor responsibilities in their daily routine are: 

1. Align the Project with Strategic Goals 

The most important role of a project sponsor is supporting the organizational goals and aligning them with project goals. They are known to find out the strategic advantages of the project and assess preliminary risks if they are present. 

2. Approve Project Scope and Budget 

This is the second-step assessment process where a sponsor reviews the project timeline and budget. Moreover, in this step, they are able to predict the outcomes and notify if there might be some issues with budgeting. In my experience, this is the most important and final step evaluation that I perform before starting an operation. 

3. Secure Resources and Funding 

The project sponsor evaluates if the first-stage resources available are appropriate and allocates a budget. At this point, please note that the initial briefing of the teams and initial kick for the project are given. They serve as a visible advocate who can help in collaboration and prioritization. 

4. Risk Management and Escalation Support 

The sponsor identifies and addresses all the risks that could hinder the project’s progress. These people are known to provide support and resolve any escalated issues that the project manager cannot address properly. 

5. Ensure Quality and Compliance 

Project sponsors verify that the project is not going out of the scope of the organizational standards. They provide support and resolve any escalated issues that the project manager cannot handle independently. 

6. Approve the Key Milestones in a Project and Deliverables

These expert sponsors are also known to play a key role in reviewing the workflow and assessing quality. Such approvals are required from time-to-time for ensuring quality and consistency are maintained throughout. For every milestone achieved, a formal review helps transition to the next stage of the project. Every output received up to this stage is processed and checked for quality and determines team efficacy. 

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Real-Life Example of a Project Sponsor

In this section, let me walk you through the abilities of a real-life project sponsor. Take the example of Steve Jobs, the visionary leader behind the success of the iPhone. He was responsible for providing the vision and helping develop the iPhone. With a crystal clear imagination, he was the driving force that made Apple what it is today. 

Next, take the example of the project sponsor roles of Elon Musk, who was responsible for making sure that SpaceX creates milestones. Elon Musk is known to provide all the possible technicalities needed to build a system that accelerates the project further. His vision of creating reusable rockets has recently been successful and it is going to dramatically reduce cost per spaceflight. 

As we have already discussed these aspects of a project sponsor, we will move on to ways to get a good sponsorship. 

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How Can You Become a Good Project Sponsor?

One of the important abilities of a good project sponsor is that they are able to guide a project to its ultimate success. To become a successful project sponsor, there are a couple of factors that you must note; they are as follows: 

• Understand the roles and responsibilities of a project

• Communicate effectively with the stakeholders and let them know of the exact situation the project is running on. 

• Demonstrate quality leadership for the team and ensure that you are not a control freak but a mentor. Mentorship is always a positive sign rather than being finicky about everything while on a project. 

• Monitor the progress appropriately and also ensure that your team is not overburdened during the work. Continuously pushing targets is not an ideal structure; everything must be in a proper flow.

• Always make informed decisions; do not just assume and put forward your opinions or run a team. 

• Manage risks by analyzing every aspect and making sure to make a considerable level of difference. 

Identifying the bottlenecks in the project is also an important role that a project sponsor must know and acknowledge. Therefore, with an appropriate understanding of the concepts, it is easier for you to make a significant difference in your career. You also need to have great communication skills to ensure that you can get all the benefits sorted appropriately. 

How to Set Up a Sponsorship Relationship for Success?

If you are trying to set up a sponsorship relationship, these are the key highlights that you need to know: 

• Set up a space for open communication across all the project verticals. 

• Try to set up clear and openly defined roles and expectations to build trust and ensure bottlenecks are less encountered.

• Build trust by being transparent.

• For a perfect sponsorship relationship, it is always encouraged to let the sponsor take the complete 

Taking such proactive steps from the start of the project helps ensure that you are able to push deliverables within time. Always prioritize the sponsorship roles to ensure that you get all the appropriate documentation met appropriately. 

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Conclusion

A project sponsor is the heart of a project and they need to be highly efficient in regards to delivering what you need. Effective project sponsors also need to understand the projects and how they perform. A suitable project sponsor is highly responsible for ensuring that the team is performing well. An ideal sponsor also needs to check whether all the deliverables are catered to at an appropriate time. If you hold a project sponsor role, it is expected to ensure that all the team members working under you are completing their jobs at a favorable time. By relying on an accurately designed PMP course from StarAgile, you can obtain higher chances of becoming a PMP professional.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the difference between a project sponsor and a project owner?

The project owner is responsible for completing the project on time, but a sponsor invests their resources in a project. The completion and overall quality control of any project is done by a project manager within the deadline informed by a project sponsor. 

2. Is a CEO and a project sponsor the same?

Typically, the higher authorities of any organization are responsible for becoming a project sponsor. A project sponsor mainly has three activities, which are providing the people with the right resources and aligning the project as per organizational goals

3. Does every project need a sponsor?

Yes, every project is expected to have a project sponsor, as they are helpful in removing obstacles and processing them smoothly. The project sponsor is needed as it helps make sure that all the parts of the project and deadlines are maintained smoothly.