When the Sponsor and Customer are Two Different People

When your sponsor and project customer are two different people, you face some unique challenges. Here are tips for handling this situation:

Address differing needs. Understand the motivations and concerns of your sponsor and customer. Customize your reports and briefings to fit those needs. If they aren’t in alignment, your status updates are the best hope for creating cohesion on the project. Although it isn’t feasible to customize communication for every stakeholder, your sponsor and customer are vital and require appropriate attention.

Align priorities. Delivering scope, within budget and on time is the goal. However, issues may dictate prioritizing these critical constraints. Facilitate a discussion your sponsor and customer to align priorities. Imagine the challenge if your sponsor wants to cut scope to stay within budget, while your customer wants to retain scope and spend more. If they can’t agree, defer to your sponsor (and focus on the next two tips to keep things moving!)

Create a review committee. Your customer and sponsor may have different views of project success. Major deliverables and decisions require meaningful discussion and decision-making. Creating a committee to review deliverables and make significant decisions helps ensure organizational buy-in as your project proceeds.

Verify the approval process. Make sure your sponsor and customer are on the same page about who will make decisions and how that process will work. Determine this process in advance . The last thing you want is schedule delays because the sponsor and customer are arguing and engaging in an escalation process.

Having separate sponsor and customer perspectives and passion for your project brings many benefits – you generally produce a better product! Helping these vital stakeholder work in harmony is an important part of your role as a project manager.

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