Nearly every technology project of any significance in an enterprise needs a project sponsor. It used to be that the duties of many project sponsors seemed to begin and end with securing financial resources for the project. Beyond that point, the role would often become a largely titular or ceremonial one, typically involving irregular attendance at meetings of the project steering committee that might meet infrequently, unless of course the project experienced some sort of crisis - occasionally leading to the steering committee meeting far too frequently for its own good, with plenty of opportunities for recriminations and "blamestorming" (i.e. a session in which everyone contributes to the finger-pointing).
This is an admittedly critical picture of the process, but I imagine many people in organizations are familiar, directly, indirectly or anecdotally with experiences not too dissimilar to the description. While I wouldn’t characterize it as the rule, neither was it the exception.
However, rather than simply dissect what has gone awry in such situations; I believe it would be more constructive to talk about the project sponsor role from start to finish. This should have relevance to a fairly broad audience, from project managers wanting to help their sponsors to CEOs who recognize that effective sponsorship by business executives and managers is a key ingredient to maximizing the return on technology projects.
Because this is a sizable topic, I will be breaking the discussion into a handful of segments. I’m going to start with some quick thoughts on sponsor selection. In future segments, I expect to cover the responsibilities of the sponsor, tips on fulfilling and evaluating the role of the sponsor, and what to do in cases of sponsor nonfeasance (or less-commonly malfeasance). Please feel free to email suggestions for particular areas of the topic you would like to see addressed.