Keep your friends close, and your Sponsors & Stakeholders even closer.
At their core, a project must have Sponsorship. Key executives and leaders within the company must stand behind the project, and demonstrate their support for the project through both the supply of resources & funding, and periodic communications to the Stakeholders that are impacted by the project.
Stakeholders need to be kept in the loop. Not everyone needs the same level of detail, but it is essential to keep the Stakeholders updated on the project’s progress and what the expectations for their support of the project at particular points in time will be. Informed Stakeholders are happy Stakeholders.
CASE STUDY:
Industry Sector: Non-Profit Healthcare
Representative Project: Software Implementation
The PeopleSoft ERP System was being implemented across a large health plan & hospital network. Although the company had a centralized leadership structure, its eight regions were allowed to operate autonomously; when the PeopleSoft implementation was announced, several of the regions were reluctant to participate in preparations for both the implementation and the retirement of the legacy systems that it would replace.
Outreach via multiple channels helped to convey key components of the business case to regional sponsors and leaders. A stakeholder analysis was conducted and a stakeholder management plan was developed and deployed resulting in all but one region complying. The national sponsors supported the implementation fully, but declined to direct the lagging region to adopt it. Stakeholders in the outlier were engaged more directly to discuss concerns they had and ultimately chose to support the implementation once they felt their feedback was addressed.