Digital Reading Room 2.0 -- LPSE-591: Project Sponsorship for Executives

LPSE-591: Project Sponsorship for Executives Report a Broken Link

This course provides an overview of what projects and project management are in general terms and, taking the perspective of a sponsor, considers why and how projects benefit from having an effective sponsor. It explores management’s role in sponsoring projects and working with professional project managers.

Lesson 1

Required Readings/ Assignments

Reading 1: Verzuh, E. (2012). Chapter 2: Foundation principles of project management. In The fast forward MBA in project management (4th ed., pp. 16-40). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Reading 2: Anonymous. (2009). What does the research show?: Review of Cicmil, S., Cooke-Davies, T., Crawford, L., & Richardson, K., Exploring the Complexity of Projects.

Reading 3: Verzuh, E. (2012). Chapter 9: Balancing the trade-off among cost, schedule, and quality. In The fast forward MBA in project management (4th ed., pp. 228-257). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Supplementary Readings

Senior project management game.

To play just assign your staff to the various tasks in the schedule and hit the Start button. It's easy, it's fast, and there's nothing to download.

Lesson 2

Required Readings/ Assignments

Reading 4: Project Management Institute. (Producer). (n. d.). Episode 193: The GAPPS standard for project sponsors [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.project-management-podcast.com/index.php/podcast-episodes/episode-details/406-episode-193-the-gapps-standard-for-project-sponsors

Podcast interview with William Duncan.

Reading 5: Young, R., & Jordan, E. (2008). Top management support: Mantra or necessity? International Journal of Project Management, 26(7), 713-725.

Reading 6: Williams, T., & Samset, K. (2010). Issues in front-end decision making on projects. Project Management Journal, 41(2), 38-49.

Reading 7: Allworth, J. (2013). The 787's problems run deeper than outsourcing. Harvard Business Review, HBR Blog Network.

Reading 8: Kloppenborg, T. J., Manolis, C., & Tesch, D. (2009). Successful project sponsor behaviors during project initiation: An empirical investigation. Journal of Managerial Issues, 21(1), 140-159.

Lesson 3

Required Readings/ Assignments

Reading 9: Creasey, T., & Hiatt, J. (2008). Why change fails. Leadership Excellence, 25(7), 18.

Reading 10: Hardy, C. (1994). Chapter 13: Power and politics in organizations. In Managing strategic action (pp. 220-237). London: Sage Publications.

Reading 11: Kiisel, T. (2012). Chapter 3: Effectively communicating, 3.5: What should my relationship with my sponsor look like? In D. Garrett (Ed.), Project pain reliever: A just-in-time handbook for anyone managing projects (pp. 85-88). Fort Lauderdale, FL: J. Ross Publishing, Inc.

Reading 12: Taylor, P. (2012). Chapter 4: Navigating people challenges, 4.2: My sponsor doesn't trust me or give me the authority I need. In D. Garrett (Ed.), Project pain reliever: A just-in-time handbook for anyone managing projects (pp. 127-130). Fort Lauderdale, FL: J. Ross Publishing, Inc.

Reading 13: Pacelli, L. (2004). Chapter 11: We didn't understand and report progress against the plan. In The project management advisor- 18 major project screw-ups, and how to cut them off at the pass (pp. 91-104). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Reading 14: Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., & Shimberg, A. (2007). How project leaders can overcome the crisis of silence. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(4), 46-52.

Reading 15: Agradipis, P. (2012). Chapter 1: Focusing your efforts, 1.9: Sponsors won't decide what they want. In D. Garrett (Ed.), Project pain reliever: A just-in-time handbook for anyone managing projects (pp. 32-36). Fort Lauderdale, FL: J. Ross Publishing, Inc.

Reading 16: Athabasca University Project Research Institute. (2009). Web interview with Professor Lynn Crawford on Situational Sponsorship of Projects.

Lesson 4

Supplementary Readings

Reading 17: Englund, R. L., & Bucero, A. (2006). Chapter 8: Sponsorship development. In Project sponsorship: Achieving management commitment for project success (pp. 141-152). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Reading 18: Perkins, B. (2007). 12 things you know about projects but choose to ignore. Computerworld, 41(11), 34.