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4.1 Project sponsor’s role during implementation

During implementation, the role of the project sponsor .³³ involves two broad perspectives. These involve being outward-looking – liaison and stakeholder engagement, and inward-looking – oversight of the project. In most cases, the actual work of the project will be done by the project team, with the project sponsor providing leadership and oversight. The project business case will have described these roles, for example in sections dealing with communication, and governance and control.

Liaison and stakeholder engagement

The project sponsor has a responsibility to maintain effective liaison and engagement, at a senior level, with those parties interested in, or affected by, the project. These stakeholders may include:

• the Minister and the entity executive;
• the project board;
• the project team;
• partners and suppliers;
• users and beneficiaries of the project; and
• community or industry groups.

Effective relationships with stakeholders are crucial to successful implementation of projects. An effective relationship:

• helps in gaining an accurate and useful understanding of the needs and expectations of the parties;
• provides a sound basis for the commitment of resources needed for successful implementation;
• provides a basis for open discussion about any changes to expectations that may be forced by circumstances as implementation proceeds; and
• assists in a productive approach to solving difficulties that may emerge during implementation, or in resolving differences of opinion about directions of the project.

Interviews with experienced senior executives indicated the benefits of:

• face to face meetings with stakeholders;
• the continuity of people involved, particularly on the project board;
• developing strong relationships between all the members of the project board, and a culture in project board meetings of active involvement, openness to hearing of problems, and decisiveness in responding to them;
• clarifying liaison and communication responsibilities between the project sponsor and the project team, to avoid any overlaps or gaps; and
• getting specialist assistance with developing, implementing and monitoring the effectiveness of a communication strategy.

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Oversight of the project

The project sponsor – often supported by a project board - has responsibility for effective oversight of the progress of implementation. Matters requiring attention include whether:

• product delivery occurs as scheduled to the appropriate quality;
• business outcomes remain on track to be delivered by the project products;
• finances – expenditure and savings – are according to plan;
• staffing – project staff numbers, capability, turnover and morale – are satisfactory;
• risks and assumptions are regularly reviewed;
• variations from plan and risk events are identified promptly and responded to effectively; and
• sound administrative practices – such as requirements for procurement, probity and recordkeeping – are being followed.

Interviews with experienced senior executives indicated the benefits of:

• independent assurance of status reporting, to help counter: the natural optimism of project teams in reporting; the technical jargon and complexities of ICT; and the risk of an unbalanced focus on some parts of the project;
• commencing corrective actions to difficulties quickly – when they may be less expensive to fix and before problems begin to proliferate;
• fostering an environment of first solving difficulties, and then learning from them – to make it easy for the project team to provide early warning of issues;
• keeping key stakeholders, including the Minister where relevant, informed in a timely and relevant way of any emerging risks to project delivery; and
• a focus on continuity of purpose – for the project sponsor and project board to take a ‘helicopter view’ of how well the project is tracking toward the business outcomes in the approved business case.

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