ERP ASSIGNMENT

ON

THE ROLE OF A PROJECT CHAMPION

Submitted to:
Dr Neettu Ganapathy
Submitted By:
CR Prithvi
PGDM NO: 13138

ERP Assignment 2014

ROLE OF A PROJECT CHAMPION
The Project Champion is someone who: advocates for the project by constantly praising its
benefits (strategic advantage, ROI, etc) to the stakeholders, is a fierce supporter of the
project, and provides (often moral) support for both the Project Manager and the Project
Team by coordinating with upper management to address their worries and/or obstacles in the
project.
In short, the Project Champion is an informal role whose main goal is to make the project
succeed by addressing different obstacles while making sure that the stakeholders are always
satisfied with the project.
Informal Role
A project champion's role is an informal one that has an almost symbolic value in some
organizations. Although a project champion is assigned to a specific project, his main goal is
simply to ensure stakeholder satisfaction and engagement in the project's completion. His
focus is on addressing various obstacles rather than making decisions or planning the steps
that will make the project move forward. Moral support is another important responsibility of
a project champion. The champion listens to feedback from the project manager about the
project's issues and communicates the information to the stakeholders along with suggested
solutions.
Responsibilities

The project champion is the person within an organization implementing a project who takes
on the burden of ensuring everyone involved is on board and behind the ultimate success of
the project.
They are responsible for:

Identifying a projects strategic objectives.

Working with the project team to ensure the vision for the project is successfully
translated into the requirements and solution design.
Critically analyzing and ensuring best practices.
Identifying and eliminating obstacles that may threaten a projects viability within the
organization itself.
Prioritizing project phases based on value.
Relaying timely updates to all managers and client contacts impacted team members.
Appropriately allocating and organizing internal resources to ensure the successful
completion implementation or adoption of a project.

A project champion is the unfeigned, authoritative and, at times, veracious champion of a

project.
A bona fide project advocate, a project champion is typically a member of senior
management or critical expertise that strengthens a projects value by adding formidable
experience to the mix. Accurately and efficiently delivering project success.

SDMIMD,Mysore

ERP Assignment 2014

Seven Traits of a Project Champion
Strong communication skills: Since the role of the Project Champion is
communicating with the Project Manager and the stakeholders, he must be an
excellent communicator.
Admiration of the organization: The Project Champion should be someone admired
and respected by the organization, someone with charisma, someone that others
blindly trust, and someone whose suggestions are always taken into consideration.
Qualifications and aptitude to understand all elements of the project.
Capacity to meet and exceed expectations of management.
Ability to motivate and inspire a team to buy in and become engaged in the projects
success.
Finesse to negotiate with all parties to ensure project success.
Exceptional problem solving abilities and the resourcefulness to defeat obstacles.
Superior organizational talents, and a knack for keeping team members on track.
Stellar communications skills, keeping all project stakeholders aware and engaged.
A project champion greatly reduces the likelihood of project failure. On the front lines of any
project, and in direct communication with the entire team at all times, the project champion is
the protector of a project. A critical sentry devoted to delivering a victorious project that
thrills management.
Once one project or stage is complete, the project champion leaps into action to get the next
one rolling a hero in the lifecycle of project management.
Perhaps the perfect Project Champion is someone from upper management, with the above
traits and some solid Project Management experience. It is important that in this case, the
Project Champion should be careful not to get tempted and assume some of the
responsibilities of the Project Manager (such as stakeholder management).
Example:
Project Champion Instance

The success of technological innovation has often been linked to the presence of a champion
who performs the crucial functions of transformational leadership and facilitation. Out of the
several critical success factors for ERP implementation such as clear goals, strong business
and technical knowledge and top management support, use of project champion is considered
one of the key success factor. Anheuser-Busch an American brewing company, manufacturer
of beer and related food products, which produces well-known brands of beers like
Budweiser successfully implemented SAP ERP in 1999. The critical success factor of this
ERP implementation included the use of project champion.

SDMIMD,Mysore