When do I Share Issues With my Sponsor?

Sharing issues with your sponsor is like walking a tight rope. You don’t want to bother them with trivial matters. But you want them to feel informed. And you never want them to be blindsided. Here are situations when you need to share issues with your sponsor.

• The sponsor’s confidence is low. Sponsors are afraid of not being in control. They also don’t like to report project concerns to their superiors. To address their fears, give them detailed project status. In status reports, include issues that you are addressing and how. If the project progresses well, your sponsor’s confidence will increase and the need to discuss minor issues will decrease. Use your perception of the sponsor’s confidence to determine which problems you should review proactively.
• Issues will affect project time or cost. The potential impact of an issue is a good measure of when you need to talk with your sponsor. How do you get this right? By setting a threshold in advance for when the sponsor wants to be informed. Is it when there’s a 1% impact on the budget, 5%, or some other number? Do the same for impacts to your schedule. (The percentages might be different for budget and schedule. Sometimes, meeting the schedule is more critical than staying within budget, or vice versa!)
• An issue affects a critical stakeholder. Influential stakeholders watch your project carefully and are likely to talk to your sponsor if problems arise.  Prevent surprises by sharing details of brewing problems and what you’re doing to address them. That way, your sponsor will be ready to address stakeholders’ concerns. And it’ll also keep stakeholder follow-up tasks out of your to-do list!
• You might need a decision. If you have a problem that might require your sponsor to make a decision, tell them about it! For example, let’s say you have problems with a new component and that component is the only way to meet some lower priority requirements. Dropping those requirements from the project might be best, but only your sponsor can drive decisions like that. By sharing the problem early, your sponsor has time to consider options and make the best decision.
• The problem might affect the sponsor’s critical performance measures. Sponsors and key stakeholders typically have operational responsibilities with measures to assess their effectiveness. For example, a target for the weekly output of a production line. If your project could impact that production line, speak up as soon as possible. That way, the sponsor and stakeholders can work with their operational team and the project to manage business impacts.

As you develop a relationship with your sponsor and confidence grows, you can shift your focus. You can spend more time resolving problems versus reporting on them. Use these guidelines along with your sponsor’s concerns to decide when you should work to solve a problem or focus on reporting it to your sponsor first.

Are there other situations where you share issues with your sponsor? Or do you have questions about how to handle sponsor discussions? Share in the comments section.

For more about working with your project sponsor, check out my Project Management Foundations course.