For decades the project profession has invested in project managers through standards, credentials, education and research, and that investment worked. The people who authorize, shape and sustain projects were left to work out their role on their own. Sponsors have been named without being developed, and accountability has been assigned without being supported. The guide closes that gap. It treats sponsorship as a discipline in its own right and defines what the role requires at the point where decisions are made.

What is inside

Thirteen chapters open with the five patterns that weaken sponsorship: passive sponsorship, ambiguous mandates, delegated accountability, governance by exception and capacity constraints. The STEWARD governance model then sets out seven core sponsor accountabilities that cannot be delegated without weakening governance. Further chapters cover the path from strategy to mandate, governance and gatekeeping at decision gates, the Sustainability Management Plan and the P5™ Impact Analysis as sponsorship instruments, and AI as a decision-support tool that changes the pace and volume of sponsor decisions without changing who is accountable for the outcome. Six decision aids close the guide: lightweight checks built for the point of decision, when time is short and deliberate thinking is hardest.

The guide places sustainability inside governance, as part of how organizations decide which work is worth doing and whether it remains worth doing as conditions change. It was written for the conditions sponsors face in practice, when delivery is under way, information is incomplete and momentum pulls toward continuation.

The guide was authored by Dr. Joel Carboni, GPM’s founder and president, and is published by the PMI GPM Sustainability Joint Venture. It is free to download, with no membership required. A launch webinar, Why Some Projects Fail: The Sponsor’s Role, follows on 31 August on ProjectManagement.com.