In some industries like advertising, there is no difference between the sponsor and the project manager, as the sponsor is inevitably the same person who is managing the project. Normally, this may tend to complicate matters- as he is responsible for financing the project , controlling it and authorizing all changes required. He is also the one who decides the scope. When the same person holds the purse strings as well as decides the scope of the project, this may lead to cutting corners on quality.
How, then, does this work in the advertising industry?
When analysing the projects carried out in advertising agencies, it was found that most of the processes specially related to risk management were not applied at all- this was because all their projects are short term and risk is minimal in their industry. They tend to lay more emphasis on defining the scope, as this exercise is all important for the success of their endeavours. At least 70-80% of their project time is dedicated to the planning phase.
Most other industries, however, do need a designated sponsor who works independently from the project manager. To solve this, we need to assign two different persons for these two tasks, so that we can avoid conflict of interests.
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