The X-ray Background

The role of project sponsor is critical in large projects during the development of the business case, for governance and assurance and as the person who decides that the project should continue or close at any stage. And yet in many organizations the skills of the sponsor are often assumed; he or she will be a senior manager who may well have no practical project experience at all. David West's Project Sponsorship explains the roles and skills that lie at the heart of effective sponsorship. The sponsor acts as a lynch-pin between the Board and the Project Manager, communicating and translating requirements downwards and resource needs, progress and constraints back upwards. An over-zealous sponsor may be tempted to assume some of the project manager's, whilst an ineffective sposnor may be invisible, leaving the project manager uninformed by and unrepresented to the Board. Project Sponsorship includes include exercises, examples and case histories from the real world of projects. This is an essential guide for anyone assuming such an important role.