What Is a Project Sponsor? Roles & Responsibilities

Projects need a variety of resources to be executed and delivered successfully. In most cases, these resources come from a sponsoring organization or project sponsor.

What Is a Project Sponsor?

A project sponsor is an individual who offers financial resources to fund a project. Besides securing the project financing, a project sponsor might also propose the project’s business case, establish a project vision and set the project governance guidelines. The project sponsor is also usually responsible for the project’s return on investment and the impact it has on the organization. Once the project is approved, the project sponsor supervises the project management team from a high-level standpoint, while project managers oversee the daily project activities.

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Project Sponsorship

Project sponsorship can vary depending on the project and organization. For example, in a sole proprietorship, the project sponsor is the business owner who hires a project team to execute a project. In the case of an IT project for a large organization, the project sponsor might be the chief information officer who will work with an IT project manager and a group of team members. In other cases, C-level executives and senior managers can be the executive sponsors of a project.

Project sponsors and project managers need a project management tool to collaborate and make sure their projects are successful. ProjectManager is robust project management software with all the tools needed to plan, schedule and track projects from ideation to completion such as Gantt charts, kanban boards and timesheets. In addition, ProjectManager has real-time dashboards, collaboration features and project reports that help project sponsors keep track of multiple projects and communicate their progress to their organizations.

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Project Sponsor Role

The project sponsor is responsible for many aspects of the project, from initiating and ensuring project feasibility to tracking project progress and assessing its outcomes. The role can be broken into three parts: project vision, project governance and value or benefits realization.

Establishing the Project Vision

Ensures the business case is valid and aligned with the business proposition
Aligns project with business strategy, goals and objectives
Stays informed of project events to keep the project viable
Determines the feasibility of a project
Defines the criteria for project success and how it fits with the overall business

Establishing Project Governance Guidelines

Ensures the project is aligned with the strategic objectives of his organization
Maintains organizational priorities throughout the project
Offers support for project organization
Defines project roles and reporting structure
Acts as an escalation point for issues when something is beyond the project manager’s control
Gets financial project resources and approves the resource plan drafted by the project manager
Decision-maker for progress and phases of the project

Setting Goals and Estimating the Project Benefits

Ensures that risks and changes are managed
Helps to ensure project controls and review of processes
Oversees the delivery of project value
Approves deliverables
Evaluates project status and progress
Helps with decision-making
Oversees project quality throughout project phases

Project Sponsor Responsibilities

Project sponsors play different roles in each phase of the project life cycle. Here’s a quick overview of the main roles and responsibilities of a project sponsor for each project management phase.

Project Sponsor Responsibilities During Project Initiation

Project sponsors are instrumental in selecting the project manager during the initiation phase, and they give that project manager a clear mandate and context for the project and set the level of their authority.

During the project initiation, the project sponsor ensures the project is appropriate for the organization, offering input on the project charter and participating in the kick-off meeting. The sponsor helps with the decision-making during this phase.

ProjectManager’s project charter template. Download now

Project Sponsor Responsibilities During Project Planning

For the planning phase, the project sponsor is checking to make sure the project plan is realistic and feasible. This accounts for time restrictions and whether or not the team is tasked with expectations they cannot meet.

The project sponsor can help resolve issues, too, if they’re beyond the scope of the project manager. If there are other projects in play, the project sponsor is making sure they’re working together and not against each other.

ProjectManager’s project plan template. Download now

Project Sponsor Responsibilities During Project Execution

For the implementation and control phases, the project sponsor should work with the project manager, but not overstep boundaries. The project sponsor evaluates the project’s actual progress against what was planned and provides feedback to the project manager as necessary.

Sponsors also help the project manager and teamwork more autonomously to solve issues as they arise, while ensuring that processes are being followed. They identify underlying factors that might cause problems and celebrate the completion of milestones.

ProjectManager’s implementation plan template. Download now

Project Sponsor Responsibilities During Project Closure

During the closing phase, the project sponsor is part of the post-mortem evaluation of performance and other aspects of the project. They make sure that handoffs and signoffs are done properly. Project sponsors help facilitate the discussion that decides whether a project was a success or failure.

Overall, a project sponsor helps to streamline communications. They create trust and collaboration and keep problems from escalating. In terms of issues, they set up the instrument to identify problems with the schedule, cost and quality. In that sense, they’re also in charge of making sure risk management is successful. Finally, they also encourage record-keeping for historical data storage.

ProjectManager’s project closure template. Download now

Now that we have a better understanding of the project sponsor role, let’s compare it against other similar project management roles.

Project Sponsor vs. Project Manager

As stated above, the project sponsor differs from the project manager because the project manager is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the project management team through the planning, scheduling, execution and closing phases of a project.

The project sponsor, on the other hand, supervises the project from a high-level standpoint that requires them to understand how projects align with their organization’s strategic planning. This mindset allows them to prioritize project ideas depending on which will bring the most benefits to their organization.

Project Sponsor vs. Project Owner

While the project sponsor is mostly concerned with securing the financial resources for a project and getting it started, a project owner is an individual who’s accountable for the overall failure or success of a project. He’ll work closely with project managers to make sure things go as planned and reports back to the project sponsor.

Project Sponsor vs. Project Stakeholder

The project stakeholder can be confused with the project sponsor because of the similar titles. However, their roles and level of involvement with the project are very different.

A project stakeholder is anyone who’s affected by the project to some degree. There are internal project stakeholders such as a company’s board of directors, shareholders and employees and also external project stakeholders such as government regulatory agencies, landowners, etc. The project sponsor is usually part of the organization that owns the project.

What Skills Should a Project Sponsor Have?

Project sponsors are usually senior managers or executives who excel at leadership, financial planning, strategic planning and business management. However, to succeed in their project sponsor role, they should be experts in project portfolio management and have project management skills such as project planning, scheduling and tracking.

How ProjectManager Helps Project Sponsors & Project Managers

Project sponsors need regular status updates. ProjectManager has a number of tools that help you get your tasks done on time and under budget, and then communicate that success to your project sponsor.

Plan, Schedule & Track Projects With Gantt Charts

For example, with our online Gantt chart, when team members log on and complete the tasks assigned to them, the project progress updates in real time. This helps you stay on schedule and provides a visual way to update your project sponsor on the schedule.

Monitor Projects at a Glance With Real-Time Dashboards

ProjectManager also has a real-time dahboard that displays live project data. These charts can be filtered to display just the data that the project sponsor wants, and then shared digitally or printed out for a presentation. If you’re meeting with the project sponsor, take your software with you. You can easily access it if any questions arise that demand a deeper dive into the data.

ProjectManager’s dashboard view, which shows six key metrics on a project

Project sponsors need this sort of transparency: they feel a part of the process and can provide the guidance they’re tasked to deliver to keep the project aligned with the organization’s business objectives.