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2) Project Ownership
Projects with weak management ownership generally fail because they do not have the support they need for resources or issue resolution. Weak ownership can indicate that the project does not align with organization’s mission, strategy or goals. Additionally, weak ownership can mean that a project is sponsored by a low-level or ineffective manager without the authority to allocate the necessary resources or the ability to resolve issues that are escalated from the project team. The size, complexity and organizational span of the project should correlate with the level and effectiveness of the project’s sponsor in order to achieve success. Small, easy projects can be completed successfully with the ownership of lower-level managers. Larger projects that require resources from across the firm will need strong senior management support to be successful.
Project managers who find that their project has relatively weak sponsorship have three options:
First, the project manager can accept it and try to manage the project with the existing level of sponsorship. In this scenario, the project manager and project team generally work a great deal of overtime and become frustrated due to lack of issue resolution. Resources may be pulled off the project as they or their management believe they could be working on more important projects (read: “more strongly sponsored”) leaving the project manager and other project team members to work that much harder. Generally these projects end in failure. If the project manager is able to get the project across the finish line, the project is usually significantly late and/or does not achieve the scope originally planned. The project manager and project team (what’s left of it) have worked very hard and are glad to put the project behind them. In some cases their reward is a drop in credibility due to their associations with a failed or a less than successful project.
Second, the project manager can try to obtain stronger sponsorship. This can be difficult. The project manager should identify the highest-level person in the organization that will benefit from the completion of the project and ask him to be the project sponsor making sure he understands two things: How important it is to the success of the project that he becomes the sponsor and what his role and responsibilities will be. Additionally, the project manager can work toward obtaining strong members of the project steering team. This will also accomplish strong project sponsorship.
Third, it is the responsibility of project managers to recommend project termination when it becomes apparent that the probability of its success is virtually non-existent. Any additional expenditure of the organization’s time and money would be a waste. If the project manager believes that the necessary project sponsorship for project success cannot be achieved, then he should convince management to either cancel, or at least delay, the project until sufficient project ownership can be established.
Project situations that display symptoms of a lack of project ownership (sponsorship) include:
- The project resources aren’t available at the time they are needed, even after they were promised.
- The project resources claim they can’t work on the project due to higher or changing priorities.
- The project issues aren’t resolved and escalation to management doesn’t work.
- The project is underfunded from the beginning.
- The project’s management has differing levels of support and views of project value and priority.
- The project fades away and is not completed.
The Other Causes of Project Problems and Failure
(FOOD-PARC)
1) Feasibility, 2) Ownership, 3) Organization, 4) Definition, 5) Planning, 6) Alignment, 7) Resources and 8) Control
