Strategies for Project Sponsorship
“Empowering project managers to influence up the chain of command”
Now Available!
About Strategies for Project Sponsorship
Project Managers Whatever a project manager may wish for, the reality is that they have to work with the project sponsor that they are given. You can choose your friends but not your relatives – or your sponsors! This book will show you techniques to get the best out of the project sponsor you have. It will also show you the value that a good sponsor brings to your project. Often, a project is started without any firm foundations, but having a clear project sponsor and project manager who play their roles well will benefit the entire project.
Project Sponsors Dealing with project managers is not always easy, and often – very often – sponsors have received no training or support for their critical role. This book will show you how to be a good sponsor and to work efficiently and effectively with the project manager by providing a common understanding of project processes. Statistics from Project Agency highlight the issue. In fact, only 38% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “There is always clear sponsorship defined for our projects.” Just over 48% either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this and 13% were not sure! Clearly there is a problem around the sponsor role. This book will help both the sponsor and project manager look at the sponsor role and how best to play it. There is a lot of enthusiasm for this subject in the market. An example of this is a LinkedIn group started by Peter Taylor, which gained over 400 members within a week and is now averaging 9 discussions a week with 50+ comments each. The membership of this group shows a good cross-section from PMs to CXOs. This shows a vibrant and lively community which is based on the mutual agreement that sponsorship needs to improve and project sponsor relationships need help.
Professional Associations Members of professional associations would benefit by talking about sponsorship and project management; so if you are a professional association, this would be an added bonus for your members.
Strategies for Project Sponsorship 
Congratulations Vicki for this. We met briefly at the last PMI Puget Sound dinner. I have passed around work, so I am hoping you will get more responses. We recently also put together a blog on Stakeholder Management that resonates very well with this call.
http://blog.adaquest.com/2012/02/03/keys-to-successful-stakeholder-management/
I remember Paola! Thank you for passing on the information. Hopefully I will see you again soon.
Looks an interesting book.
Any idea when it will be available ?
Thank you and greetings from Brussels
We don’t have a solid publishing schedule yet. Most likely in 2013 is the best I can say now. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted.
Great !
Thanks for your fast reply 🙂
Best wishes on your book project; it adds to a sorely needed topic–improving the performance of project sponsors. We trust that you will add to the seminal book, Project Sponsorship: Achieving Management Commitment for Project Success (2006), that Alfonso Bucero and I co-authored. We know there is much work to be done in this area and welcome your contributions.
Randy Englund, Englund Project Management Consultancy, http://www.englundpmc.com
Randy,
Phew…glad I checked the spam folder. I almost missed your comment!
Your book is a core foundation to my understanding and philosophy of project sponsorship. Thank you for laying the first bricks of foundation and for your support as we continue to build the road.
Vicki
I also wish you luck with this. When I wrote the author proposal for my book Project Sponsorship: An Essential Guide for Those Sponsoring Projects Within Their Organizations (2010), I did an Amazon search and their were over 35,000 books on Project Management and only one (Randy and Alfonso’s) on the vitally important subject of Project Sponsorship. We all need to raise awareness and competence in this area.
Thank you David – I couldn’t agree more. We hope that by approaching from different angles we can aid in raising the awareness and competence. Ron, Peter, and I am in great company with the authors that have gone before and appreciate the support.
Cheers
An Interesting perspective: helping the project manager to get more from his/her sponsor. A commendable venture. Good luck! I look forward to reading the book, and the sequel “sponsorship strategies for getting what you wanted from your projects” 🙂
Great idea Tony!! Thanks
Congratulations – looks interesting Vicki
Congratulations!!! we expect for your book!!!!
Regards from México
“We’re on the same page!” Your new book: “Strategies For Project Sponsorship” is on the same page as my book: “The Project Management Answer Book” (literally) in the new publisher’s catalog (Management Concepts). Hooray! 🙂 Jeff
Looking forward to reading this book!
Hi Guys, I was lucky enough to have a chance to read an early copy – let me say, I think it is a fabulous book that will fill a glaring gap in contemporary literature. I am so excited to see this go well and I wish you all the best. You have done a great job!
Thank you Tony!
Congratulations Vicki, Ron, Peter on the production of a superb book. We’re so enthused by it here at one eight that we’ve devoted our first ever blog post to it! http://oneeight.co.uk/2013/05/17/strategies-for-project-sponsorship/ We wish you every success with it, all the best from Team One Eight.
Thank you so much for honoring us with your first ever blog post. And such a great review to boot. We’re fans already! Wishing Team One Eight the greatest success with the blog.
Vicki, any chance your book with be available through Safari Online Books (http://techbus.safaribooksonline.com/)? Any update on a availability date?
Hi Kelly,
That is a good question that I will have to pose to our Publisher. I will keep you posted. Hard copies are now available through the publisher (Management Concepts) at http://store.brightkey.net/mconcepts_ebiz/OnlineStore/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductId=295121
Vicki
Hi Kelly, word from the publisher is that it will not be available on Safari, however we do expect to have it available on Amazon. They will follow up to see if there is new on when.