Abby Herriman, PMP

As the managing director of Praxis Learning Networks, Abby Herriman is a PMP-certified performance improvement specialist focused on building project management competency and maturity in organizations large and small through organizational design, training implementation, and creating a holistic PM culture that improves project outcomes.

Abby has more than 10 years of experience managing projects and large programs in publishing, life sciences, training, marketing and technology organizations. She also has had the privilege of managing organizations of project and program managers and implementing project management offices.

As a project management instructor and instructional designer, she has created and taught classes on all aspects of PMBOK® methodology and has assisted hundreds of project managers in achieving PMP® and CAPM® certification.

Abby is a member of the American Society for Training and Development and the Central Indiana chapter of PMI and holds a BA in English and Organizational Communication from Purdue University.

Project Sponsor: More than Just a Checkbook

Most of us leading projects have seen what a weak, uninterested, or downright hostile sponsor can do to our projects. Resources are “borrowed” to work on other late or more high-profile projects (almost certainly dooming your efforts in the process), scope and requirements changes come in by the dozens, a critical project decision needs to be made and your sponsor won’t make time to see you…sound familiar?  When it feels like you’re walking down a dark path by yourself then it usually means your sponsor ditched you long ago.  So how do we get the strong, supportive sponsor relationship we really need to make our projects successful?  How do we get a true partner relationship with our sponsor?

In this one-hour discussion, we’ll discover the true role of the project sponsor, some techniques to keep them involved, engaged and supportive (without becoming micro-managers), and some methods to achieve project success if these techniques should fail.