Formally, all prerequisites for successful project delivery seem to be in place. A fully staffed delivery team has been assembled, including a project manager, methodology experts, architects, consultants, and DevOps engineers. On the client side, a complete project team is also in place. The project charter has been approved, the work plan agreed upon, regular meetings are held, and interaction between teams appears to be well organized.
However, over time it becomes evident that the project is losing momentum. Decision-makers are increasingly absent from regular meetings. Discussions repeatedly revolve around the same topics with participants who lack decision-making authority. Key project decisions are continuously postponed or not made at all. As a result, task deadlines shift, and interest in the project gradually declines — not only among the client team, but also among the implementation team. The project starts to feel purely formal: everyone seems to be performing their duties, but without real engagement or ownership.
Because the project is, on paper, structured correctly according to formal criteria, the root cause of the problem is not always obvious. In reality, the project — especially large and complex initiatives involving many stakeholders — is missing a critical component: a leader, or a so-called project champion. This is a team member who is fully committed to achieving results from day one through go-live, often “living” the project and energizing teams on both sides.
A client-side project champion acts as a leader, a connector, and the primary driver of results. This person deeply understands the project’s objectives, has influence over colleagues, and knows how internal approval processes work. They do not necessarily hold a senior title or formal authority, but their involvement is critical to success.
The champion may not personally make all key decisions, but they know how to ensure decisions are made by the actual decision-makers. They are deeply involved in all aspects of the project and the business domain, have established communication with key users of the future system, and can convincingly explain why the assigned scope of work matters.
Ideally, the champion understands the organization’s “internal mechanics” — including whom to approach (sometimes informally) to resolve non-standard issues. They are capable of pushing important changes through internal approval processes and securing concrete outcomes.
Most importantly, a champion believes in the project. They do not wait for instructions from management; instead, they proactively initiate activities, provide feedback on prototypes, coordinate teams, and engage with decision-makers. They are genuinely interested in making the system work — not formally, but in practice, at the level of real user adoption. They are often the first to test the system, share real-life use cases, recommend the solution to colleagues, and actively use it themselves.
Project delays. Decisions are made extremely slowly, approvals take weeks, and progress stalls while teams wait for formal sign-off.
Diluted accountability. No one drives the project end-to-end. Responsibility is fragmented: everyone delivers their individual tasks, but no one owns the overall result.
Loss of focus and priorities. The project gradually loses importance for the client team. Project tasks are pushed aside, especially when employees face high operational workloads.
A large household appliances retailer launches a project to develop a normative, driver-based planning model for 20 functional divisions. The project scope is ambitious: the company needs to update its Bottom-Up (BU) budgeting methodology and, almost from scratch, develop a Top-Down (TD) planning approach for each division. BU and TD methodologies differ significantly in terms of calculation granularity, applied drivers, and statistical methods. Shortly after the methodology phase, the project moves into process automation through CPM system implementation.
Historically, functional divisions had never used a TD planning approach. However, top management decided to introduce rolling forecasting to support continuous business management. To minimize the monthly workload on divisions, specialized TD driver-based models were designed for each function, primarily maintained by the finance department.
At the design stage, however, such models are extremely difficult to develop without the expertise and experience of business units such as Marketing, Logistics, and Retail Network Development.
The divisions saw little benefit in the new planning approach. Moreover, they perceived risks, as TD calculations were expected to become the baseline — and in many cases the “limits” — for their BU budgets. Meanwhile, the implementation team faced an enormous workload across methodology and automation, with a very tight project timeline. The vendor lacked both the resources and the organizational influence needed to convince dozens of stakeholders with varying levels of engagement, availability, and readiness to collaborate.
Fortunately, the client appointed an experienced and charismatic Product Owner as the project leader. This individual successfully built communication across all involved divisions, organized and led meetings with project sponsors, demonstrated progress and interim results, and secured management decisions on budget and scope changes. They became an ambassador of the implemented system, led pilot testing, supported business units with data input and calculations, fostered team spirit, motivated both client and vendor teams, and took responsibility during challenging moments.
As a result, the project was delivered on time, and the first budgeting cycle was successfully completed in the system. Without such a project champion, achieving the same results within the same timeframe would have been extremely difficult.
Decisions are delayed and require constant escalation to sponsors. The same issues are discussed repeatedly, while key decisions are postponed, creating a sense of endless discussion without tangible progress.
Decision-makers are absent from meetings. Calls and workshops take place without participants who have authority to decide. The delivery team raises issues but receives no clear answers.
Formal participation from the client team. Client employees attend meetings and complete tasks at a minimal level, showing little initiative. Most proactive effort comes from the vendor.
Identify a champion at the project outset
This may be a project manager, product owner, functional leader, or another respected member of the client team. Ideally, this person is deeply knowledgeable in the business domain, has strong communication skills, and possesses solid professional credibility.
Ensure the champion is motivated
The champion role is often informal. Some individuals are motivated by frustration with existing processes; others see the project as a career opportunity. What matters is that they genuinely care about delivering a successful outcome.
Relieve the champion from other responsibilities during the project
Where possible, partially or fully free them from day-to-day operational tasks during the active implementation phase.
Provide visibility and recognition
Public recognition, highlighting their contribution, and involving them in strategic meetings and sessions strengthens their position within the organization and reinforces motivation to lead the project forward.
