April 25, 2017 Dinner Meeting

Project Management Isn’t Enough: Essentials of Effective Sponsorship

Project management folklore (and PM product vendors) assure us that abundant spending on project management training and tools guarantees project success. Real world results disagree. While most organizations recognize a return on past investments in project management, many continue to be frustrated by projects that exceed schedule or budget goals, don’t deliver promised functionality or acceptable quality products, or fail outright. Was the whole “PM thing” more hype than substance? Has the ROI peaked? Will the next tool, method, process, or class solve the problem?

During his presentation, Payson Hall will argue that:

• Some projects cannot succeed as defined no matter how well they are managed, and
• Effective project management is necessary, but insufficient

Payson asserts the quality and availability of effective sponsorship can greatly enhance or severely restrict the effectiveness of project management practices. Sponsors establish project goals and organizational priorities, setting a context for project management. Sponsorship is essential for project success... yet poorly understood in some quarters and often difficult to secure.

This presentation is for project managers and sponsoring executives, providing practical insights to improving project success through better sponsorship by:

• Defining the Sponsor’s role and why it is essential
• Discussing how to ask for and encourage good sponsorship
• Exploring how effective sponsorship encourages more realistic expectations and better business decisions

Location: Twisted Fork South Reno

PDU: 1

Payson Hall's Bio

Payson Hall is a consulting project manager and founding member of Catalysis Group, Inc. Trained as a software engineer, Payson has performed and consulted on a variety of hardware and software systems integration projects in both the public and private sectors throughout North America and Europe during his 30-year professional career. His consulting clients have included the State of California, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, IBM, Agilent, Citibank, the State of New York, the Defense Communications Agency, and a number of smaller public and private sector organizations.

He is a valued member of many project consulting and project review teams because of his combination of IT project management experience, problem solving skill and communication ability. He has taught project management seminars attended by over 5000 people during the past 20 years. He is a popular conference speaker on topics of systems integration, project management, and risk management and has published over 60 project management articles in publications as diverse as PM Network, Computerworld, The Cutter IT Journal, Better Software, and the Journal of the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India.