New chapter about project manager role

PMBOK 6 will contain a new chapter on the role of the project manager which
discusses the PMI Talent Triangle and the skill sets organizations demand
that make project managers more competitive and relevant-technical project
management, leadership, and strategic and business management.

What is a Project Sponsor?

MARCH 6, 2018 BY BERNIE ROSEKE, P.ENG., PMP LEAVE A COMMENT
The project sponsor is a very important part of the project management organizational chart. In fact,
every project has a sponsor.

The project sponsor is one, and only one, level above the project manager. They do notmanage the
day to day operations of the project but they ensure the resources are in place, promote the project,
and hold overall responsibility for the project’s success. They represent the business side of the
project. They were probably involved when the project was being conceived and advocated for its
inception before a project manager was assigned.

Definition

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines a project sponsor like this:

PMBOK, 6th Edition, Page 723

Project Sponsor: A person or group who provides resources and support for the project, program or
portfolio and is accountable for enabling success.

Examples

Here are some examples of the project sponsor

role.

 For a highway construction project, the project sponsor is likely employed by the state. In
contrast, the project manager is employed by the construction company and submits project
updates and requests funding changes from the project sponsor.
 For a house construction project, the project sponsor is likely employed by the house building
company. They are probably responsible for multiple house building projects, or for the
success of the company on some level. In contrast, the project manager is responsible for the
day to day operations and scheduling of a house building project.
 For an I.T. project, the project sponsor might be the Chief Information Officer for the
company. They receive updates and approve project changes from the project manager who is
responsible for the immediate day to day project work.
Roles and Responsibilities

The project sponsor generally has the following roles:

1. Promotion. They are the project champion that attempts to keep the project at the highest
priority within the organization.
2. Authorization. They authorize the project and assign the project manager.
3. Funding. They are responsible for ensuring funding is in place and approving changes to the
project budget.
4. Approving. They approve the project management plan and are kept aware of how the
project is managed.
5. Scoping. They are generally responsible for determining the initial project scope, although the
project manager is ultimately responsible for the official project scope within the project
management plan.
6. Project Charter. This document officially creates the project and assigns the project
manager. It falls directly within the project sponsor’s responsibility.
7. Informing. They receive project status updates from the project manager and disseminate the
information to the relevant executives.
8. Receiving. The project sponsor receives the project deliverables from the project manager,
approves them, and integrates them into the owner organization.
The project sponsor is not necessarily the project manager’s boss. A common scenario is that the
project owner hires an outside contractor to carry out a project, in which case the project manager
works for a separate organization.

Project Sponsor vs. Project Owner

The project sponsor is a person. The project owner is the organization that performs the project and
receives its deliverables. Normally the project sponsor is employed by the project owner
organization.

Project Sponsor vs. Project Manager

The project sponsor is one (and only one) level above the project manager. While the project
manager is responsible for the day to day operations of the project, the project sponsor seeks to
promote the project to keep it high on the priority list, ensures the resources are in place to perform
the project, and approves changes to the project.

Project Sponsor Project Manager

Day to Day management of project work No Yes

Project Deliverables Accepts Produces

Funding Approves Requests

Other Members of the Project Organization Chart

The project sponsor sits at the top of the project organizational chart. In effect, everyone within the
project reports to them, even if through the project manager. The other members of a project
organization chart are:

 Project Manager: Responsible for the day to day project work, keeping the project on
schedule and budget. They report to the Project Sponsor.
 Project Team: The people who perform the technical project work and produce
the deliverables. They report to the project manager.
 Customers/Users: The people who use the project deliverables to improve their lives or
work. They are sometimes involved directly within the project in the form of focus groups or test
subjects.
 Vendors: The people and organizations the project procures to provide products and/or
services to fill technical gaps in the project team’s knowledge or ability, or to enhance the
quality of the final product.
 Business Partners: The people or organizations that the project owner partners with to fulfill a
specific role like installation, training or support.
 Functional Managers: The managers of technical groups (departments) within the owner
organization, who often supply technical expertise to the project.
 External Stakeholders: Most project have stakeholders who are affected by the project, like
government regulatory agencies, adjacent landowners, and the like.
Leadership Styles
A project manager may adopt various leadership styles depending upon personal, team
members, organizational and environmental characteristics.

Basic Leadership Styles

The four basic leadership styles of the project manager are described below.

Autocratic

The project manager is primarily focused on getting the tasks done, with little regard to
the team member’s feelings.

Directing

The project manager tells the team members what, when, where, and how to do things

Democratic or Participative

The project manager encourages the team members to actively participate in the
decision-making process.

A lot of authority is delegated to the team members and they play an active role in
managing the project.

Laissez-faire

It’s a French term, literally meaning “let do”.

The project manager turns things over to the team members, and only monitors the
work at a high level.

Other Leadership Styles

The PMBOK Guide, 6th Edition defines a few other styles such as:

Servant Leader
This comes from the Agile world. A servant leader demonstrates commitment to serve
and put other people first. Read Servant Leadership for a better understanding of this
topic.

Transactional

Rewards are based on accomplishments against goals.

Transformational

Empowering, motivating and inspiring the team members.

Charismatic

Able to inspire; is high-energy, enthusiastic, self-confident; holds strong convictions.

Interactional

A combination of transactional, transformational, and charismatic leadership styles.

Situation Leadership Styles

Hersey and Blanchard proposed four situational leadership styles of the project manager
as described below.

S1 Telling
Directing
S2 Selling
Coaching
S3 Participating
Supporting
S4 Delegating
Observing

The maturity and skill levels of team members are described below.

M1 Low Maturity
Low Skills
M2 Medium Maturity
Limited Skills
M3 Medium Maturity
Higher Skills
 M4 High Maturity
High Skills

Mapping of Leadership Styles and Maturity of Team

The following matrix shows the appropriate situational leadership style based on the
maturity and skill levels of the team members.

(S3) (S4)
Participating / Supporting Delegating / Observing
(M3) (M4)
Medium Maturity / Higher Skills High Maturity / High Skills
(S1) (S2)
Telling / Directing Selling / Coaching
(M1) (M2)
Low Maturity / Low Skills Medium Maturity / Limited Skills

Powers of Project Manager

One of the major difficulties for a project manager is getting people to cooperate and perform. This is
a major issue in a matrix organization. The different types of power for the project managersinclude:
 Formal (legitimate): This power is based on the position of the project manager
 Reward: This power stems from giving rewards
 Penalty (Coercive): This power comes from the ability to penalize team members
 Expert: This power comes from being the technical expert or even the project management
expert
 Referent: Referent is the power of charisma and fame. This power comes from another
person liking the project manager, respecting him, or wanting to be like him.

MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP STYLES

A project manager needs to use multiple leadership approaches throughout the life cycle of a
project. The term is called situational leadership. It refers to using different leadership styles, based
on the people and project work he or she is dealing with. The leadership and management styles
include:
 Directing: This style involves telling others what to do
 Facilitating; When facilitating, project manager coordinates inputs of others
 Coaching; In coaching, the manager helps others achieve their goals
 Supporting; A supporting leadership style means the project manager provides assistance
along the way
 Autocratic; This is a top-down approach. Here, the manager has the power to do whatever
he or she wants
  Consultative; This is a bottom-up approach. It uses influence to achieve results. The
manager obtains others opinions and acts as the servant for the team.
 Consultative-Autocratic: In this style, the manager solicits input from team members, but
retains the decision-making authority for him or herself
 Consensus: This style involves problem-solving in a group, and making decisions based on
group agreement
 Delegating: With a delegating style, the manager establishes goals and then gives the
project team sufficient authority to complete the work
 Bureaucratic: This style focuses on following procedures exactly
 Charismatic: Charismatic managers energize and encourage their team in performing
project work
 Democratic or participative: This style involves encouraging team participation in the
decision-making process
 Laissez-faire: The French term laissez-faire has been translated as meaning allow to act,
allow to do, or leave alone. A laissez-faire manager is not directly involved in the work of the
team, but manages and consults as necessary. This style can be appropriate with a highly
skilled team.
 Analytical: This style depends on the managers own technical knowledge and ability.
Analytical managers often make the technical decisions for the project, which they
communicate to their teams.
 Driver: A manager with a driver style is constantly giving directions. His or her competitive
attitude drives the team to win.
 Influencing: The style emphasizes teamwork, team building, and team decision making. These
managers work with their teams to influence project implementation.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION
The key conflict resolution techniques are:
Confronting (problem-solving):
Confronting means solving the real problem so that the problem goes away. Confronting leads to a
win-win situation.
Compromising:
This is a lose-lose situation since no party gets everything. This technique involves finding solutions
that bring some degree of satisfaction to both parties.
Withdrawal (Avoidance):
In this technique, the parties retreat or postpone a decision on a problem. Dealing with problems is a
PMI-ism; therefore, withdrawal is not usually the BEST choice for resolving the conflict.
Smoothing (Accommodating):
This technique emphasizes agreement rather than differences of opinion
Forcing:
This technique involves pushing one viewpoint at the expense of another

[The following section contains PMBOK v5 content and it is not applicable to PMBOK v6.]
One of the major difficulties for a project manager is getting people to cooperate and perform. This is
a major issue in a matrix organization. The different types of power for the project managers include:
 Formal (legitimate): This power is based on the position of the project manager
 Reward: This power stems from giving rewards
 Penalty (Coercive): This power comes from the ability to penalize team members
 Expert: This power comes from being the technical expert or even the project management
expert
 Referent: Referent is the power of charisma and fame. This power comes from another
person liking the project manager, respecting him, or wanting to be like him.

MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP STYLES

A project manager needs to use multiple leadership approaches throughout the life cycle of a
project. The term is called situational leadership. It refers to using different leadership styles, based
on the people and project work he or she is dealing with. The leadership and management styles
include:
 Directing: This style involves telling others what to do
 Facilitating; When facilitating, project manager coordinates inputs of others
 Coaching; In coaching, the manager helps others achieve their goals
 Supporting; A supporting leadership style means the project manager provides assistance
along the way
 Autocratic; This is a top-down approach. Here, the manager has the power to do whatever
he or she wants
 Consultative; This is a bottom-up approach. It uses influence to achieve results. The
manager obtains others opinions and acts as the servant for the team.
 Consultative-Autocratic: In this style, the manager solicits input from team members, but
retains the decision-making authority for him or herself
 Consensus: This style involves problem-solving in a group, and making decisions based on
group agreement
 Delegating: With a delegating style, the manager establishes goals and then gives the
project team sufficient authority to complete the work
 Bureaucratic: This style focuses on following procedures exactly
 Charismatic: Charismatic managers energize and encourage their team in performing
project work
 Democratic or participative: This style involves encouraging team participation in the
decision-making process
  Laissez-faire: The French term laissez-faire has been translated as meaning allow acting,
allow to do, or leave alone. A laissez-faire manager is not directly involved in the work of the
team, but manages and consults as necessary. This style can be appropriate with a highly
skilled team.
 Analytical: This style depends on the managers own technical knowledge and ability.
Analytical managers often make the technical decisions for the project, which they
communicate to their teams.
 Driver: A manager with a driver style is constantly giving directions. His or her competitive
attitude drives the team to win.
 Influencing: The style emphasizes teamwork, team building, and team decision making. These
managers work with their teams to influence project implementation.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION
The key conflict resolution techniques are:
Confronting (Problem Solving):
Confronting means solving the real problem so that the problem goes away. Confronting leads to a
win-win situation.
Compromising:
This is lose-lose situation since no party gets everything. This technique involves finding solutions
that bring some degree of satisfaction to both parties.
Withdrawal (Avoidance):
In this technique, the parties retreat or postpone a decision on a problem. Dealing with problems is a
PMI-ism; therefore, withdrawal is not usually the BEST choice for resolving the conflict.
Smoothing (Accommodating):
This technique emphasizes agreement rather than differences of opinion
Collaborating:
In this technique, the parties try to incorporate multiple viewpoints in order to lead to consensus
Forcing:
This technique involves pushing one viewpoint at the expense of another