How can a Project Sponsor help you?

Executives involved in Projects as members of steering committees or sponsors or often wonder how they can help. If you struggle answering this question, Barbee Davis, PMP, from Davis Consulting, provides some examples:

• Advertise the project: As a senior manager, your sponsor has more gravitas and his voice carries more weight than yours.
• Share the Strategy: The more you know about how the projects fits into your company's goals and about the upper level business strategy that led to it's selection and approval, the better the decisions you can make about it.
• Defend the Project: A project in jeopardy will always benefit from an executive fighting for it.
• Motivate the Troops: Your sponsor can attend and speak at your project kickoff meeting. This visible support and explanation of the importance of the endeavor will inspire your team and give you referent power as a project manager.
• Provide Funding: Typically, the Sponsor provides funding for the project in cash or in resources. He will need to know what will be needed and when for the project to stay on track.
• Executive Ears: Your Project Sponsor can keep an ear to the executive pipeline and be alert for anything going on in the organization that could be a negative risk to your project.

If you explain his role in depth, you will have a Project Sponsor that is aware of how he can best support "his" Project ... so yours...

We want you !

Let's set the scene. People who read that blog know I'm working for Interoute, where I'm heading the Program Management Office. A few words about Interoute, for those who might not be familiar with our company: We're Europe's fastest growing telecoms provider, and we own and operate Europe's most advanced and densely connected voice and data network (you can read more on our website). The PMO at Interoute is kind of a startup with only 6 months existence, and our challenge here is to grow and deliver, and continue demonstrating that the use of best practices across the company has tremendous business results.

To achieve this goal, I'm looking for a talented Program Manager to join the startup that is the PMO at Interoute and to take a part in the growing of Project Management across the company, and to help me and the team to manage the portfolio of exciting projects we will have on our plate next year. I won't go through the skill set that is required, but if you think you are the Change Agent I need, please feel free to drop me an email.

Top 10 Useful Expressions for High Stress Days

• One by one, you people steal my sanity...
• I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.
• How many times do I have to flush before you go away?
• I'm not tense, just terribly, terribly alert.
• Earth is full, Go home.
• What am I?!?! Flypaper for freaks?!?!
• Not all people are annoying....some are dead.
• Stress is when you wake up screaming and realize you haven't fallen asleep yet.
• I feel like I'm diagonally parked.........in a parallel universe.
• You are depriving some village of an idiot.

It's that time of the year (again)

Yes, for nearly all of us, it's time again for the performance review, the appraisal meetings, yearly assessment, etc. All busy that you can be, especially at that time of the year, if you want a positive outcome, you should better get some preparation.

While I was actually preparing mine, I received from Projects @ Work a very good article written by Elizabeth Harrin, author of Project Management in the Real World. It really matches what I'm doing, so I thought I would share that with you in case you did not prepare in time:

Mediocrity versus Talent

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

-- Arthur Conan Doyle

Passion Chocolat

Double coup de coeur aujourd'hui: Ma chère et tendre a découvert ce matin Passion Chocolat, et en fait grande éloge depuis. Elle récidive il y a quelques minutes en m'adressant un message m'envoyant à cette URL, où non seulement je découvre quelques-unes de leurs réalisations (j'en bave d'avance, surtout à l'idée qu'une "patate" m'attend à la maison ce soir), mais également je découvre ce formidable blog Czech Please sur la bonne bouffe à Prague, que je vous invite à aller découvrir et que je m'empresse de mettre en blogroll !

Gartner's PPM Summit

So, Gartner's Project Portfolio Management Summit happened last week, and it was a very busy time for the attendees. The presentations were amazingly interesting altough more IT-Centric than PM-Centric, which is not surprising from Gartner. Their analysts are very good (I have been particularly impressed by Lars Mieritz, and astonished by Matt Light's brilliant presentations).

Top 10 Diplomacy Rules

Based on a post from on Michael Wade's blog, and - yes - they apply to Management and especially Project Management:

1. If you are truly powerful you don't need to raise your voice.
2. The party who cares least has enormous power.
3. It may take more than 20 years to determine who really won a dispute.
4. Very hard messages can be delivered in a very polite manner.
5. Many fights are won not by victories but by not losing.
6. Never attack anything half-heartedly.
7. Your enemy today may be your ally tomorrow.
8. Always understate your case.
9. If a personal attack is necessary, let it be made by someone who will soon be leaving town.
10. What you say is important but what you don't say is even more important.

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